You and I got Something
by Dimitri t
Summary: Getting together isn’t easy in their line of work, but somehow Wally and John manage it; evil robots, best friends, and Yellow Lanterns be damned. (Complete)
1. One: Trying To Find My Way

You and I Got Something

Notes: Blair is an OMC from a Teen Titans fic I'm working on. For some odd reason the stories insist on overlapping…feel free to ignore him. I do...

And may I suggest the "Cure" while reading this story. My personal selections includes "Doing the Unstuck", "More than This" and "Burn". (Burn is on the Crow soundtrack which I think all people should own.)

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Chapter One

Trying to Find My Way

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"So he has wings?" Roy asked. Dick nodded.

They were sitting on the bottom step outside of Dick's apartment while his tinkered with his motorcycle. It was mid-July, hot as hell, and eerily quite in Wally's city and anything else going on around the world could be handled without the combined forces of the Justice League.

Which was to say, Wally was bored. So he'd run over to visit Nightwing…well, okay, bother Nightwing, Wally amended mentally, but where he was concerned it's about the same thing. And so he found himself listening to a story about the 'Winged Avenger' Nightwing had been sharing the skies with lately.

Well, okay, winged avenger hadn't been Dick's exact words, but that wasn't really the point.

Garth and Roy had already been there, for reasons Wally hadn't questioned them on. He assumed that, in all seriousness, they were just as bored as he was and that visiting their favorite psychopath had seemed like a good idea. Not that they'd ever call Dick a psychopath to his face because…well, he was a psychopath.

Wally understood it a Bat-family pre-requisite. In fact, there were times when Wally thought you had to be a little off the deep end to even be allowed within Gotham's city limits.

"Are wings sexy?" Wally mused missing the bemused look the other man graced him with. "Is there something I'm missing in that respect?"

"What kind of question is that?" Garth asked, frowning.

"A valid one." Wally said defensively. "I'm just curious. Is it the flying thing?"

"You don't need wings to fly." Dick pointed out, wiping his hands off onto his shorts. "And flight, while intriguing to us mere mortals, which is to say me and Roy, isn't necessarily sexy."

"Right. Is it just the way they look then?"

"I guess, to some people." Dick sat next to his friend. "Why?"

"I told you, I'm curious. Stop trying to delve deeper." Wally snapped. Dick just arched an eyebrow at him.

"You're the one who ran through numerous states to come and see me, not the other way around. I think I'm entitled to wonder what's wrong with you."

"Nothing."

"Wally, you've been sitting still for over three minutes. Something's wrong." Dick said, a smile working at his lips. He knew Wally very well, since his days as Kid Flash. But it was a general rule that they didn't mention the Kid Flash days on threat of Wally bringing up Robin/Speedy/Aqualad memories.

Just the names alone tended to make the other three cringe.

At least Kid Flash was respectable, to a certain degree. Speedy and Aqualad however…those were just lame. Arsenal and Tempest were much cooler names and suited Roy and Garth better. Thankfully. And Robin held more bad memories for Dick than it did embarrassing ones. Though there were quite a few of those as well.

And of course Flash was Flash was Flash, unless you were Impulse. Though he's heard Impulse was thinking of taking up the Kid Flash moniker.

"I'm sober." Wally muttered, as if realizing this for the first time. It wasn't as if he wasn't normally sober, as getting drunk took a serious concentrated effort on his part, but some off reason being sober seemed very…wrong, right now.

"We've noticed." Garth said. If the look on his face was any indication, he was halfway between bored and curious. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

"Well, what do you plan to do about it?" Wally asked, standing up. "I'm not say anything about anything while I can still easily remember my name. I suggest we remedy this so Dick can make me talk."

Garth shrugged, which generally meant 'okay'. Dick and Roy looked a little hesitant. The more responsible of the four, Dick probably wasn't too big on the idea of getting piss drunk, just in case. And Roy, who'd been the most irresponsible for years, did have a daughter he had to take care of, a direct result of the fact he'd been the most irresponsible.

Wally sighed and looked at Garth. "Looks like it may be me and you tonight. You know Dick doesn't like to do anything that may accidentally resemble fun in any way, shape, or form. He's been an old, responsible man since we were sixteen, I should have known better."

"Oh fuck you." Dick muttered

"And upset your new friend? That's okay. We'll see you two later. Roy, give your brat a kiss for me." Wally shoved his hands into his pockets. "I know you can't go. Daddies can't party."

"Spare me Wally. You know I could out do you any day of the week."

"Its okay Roy, you don't need to put up a front. We know it's been a while since you cut loose, we're not judging. You have responsibilities as well. Right Garth?"

"Sure."

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Of course both Dick and Roy were with them at the bar a few hours later. Wally had never had a single doubt in his mind about that, he knew neither one would be able to resist the bait he'd laid out. While his three companions went easy on the drinking, for various reasons, Wally had no such limits.

Or at least not any he planned to admit to. He wanted to get deliriously, unrepently, forget all his troubles, puking the next morning while trying to keep his head from splitting apart, drunk. And the sooner he managed that, the happier he'd be.

In theory anyway.

Dick watched him carefully; ready to step in the moment he thought his friend had gone too far. Of course, since it was Wally and he was never the most 'together' guy in any situation, it could be a little difficult to know when he'd had too much.

Anything short of throwing up could just be chalked up to too much sugar.

Once the table was littered with bottles and Wally was looking distinctly blurry eyed and they'd run out of 'remember the time' stories as well as things that'd been going on lately, a topic that Wally decided to not engage in, Dick decided to step in. He put a hand on the redhead's shoulder and waved a hand in front of his face.

"I'm not that drunk." Wally muttered. "So knock it off unless you want me to hit you."

"You must be drunk if you think you can hit me." Dick argued, smiling nonetheless. "So, are you ready to spill or are we waiting for you to reach alcohol poisoning level? Because I doubt Garth and Roy would mind watching that."

"Just let me get a camera." Roy added, smirking. Garth, being Garth, just nodded his agreement.

"Eh." Wally sighed and sat up a little straighter. "I'm just wondering…what does Hawkgirl have on me? Is it the wings?"

"She has a nice body." Roy supplied. "And I'm pretty sure she could kick your ass."

"She's dedicated and loyal, and she didn't try to split the League when you were deciding what to do with her. She's never nearly gotten the League blacklisted in an attempt to make easy money." Dick listed.

"She isn't an idiot." Garth added. "And she's got experience in war. And it isn't every day you meet someone willing to betray their people to do the right thing."

"And she has wings." Dick smirked.

Wally was silent for a moment then stood up. "I was right. I need to be very drunk for this." He took about two steps before he swayed and fell over. Dick snickered, showing that he was less sober than Wally had been led to believe because Dick never snickered. And yet he just had, even though he never did.

Wally considered the implications of a man who didn't snicker snickering while Dick and Roy hauled him off of the floor and towards the door. It was decided upon, while he thought, that he'd crash at Dick's place for the night and the other two would go on their way.

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Wally glared at the phone. He knew, judging by the look on Dick's face, Batman was on the other end and he really really hoped it wasn't for him, yet somehow he knew it was. Dick hung up and shrugged at him, before falling back into the chair he'd just been sitting in and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Some evil robots are trying to take over Detroit."

"I hate robots." Wally muttered, rolling over and burrowing deeper into the confines of the couch. "Why do we keep building the damn things anyway? They all go insane and try to kill us, you'd think people would have learned by now that nothing good comes from robots."

"Batman said Green Lantern's been taken hostage."

Wally opened an eye and stared at the fabric of Dick's couch. "Do you think he just said that because he knows I'll come running?"

"The thought had entered my mind." Dick said. A pause. "Hey, Wally, you know you and Hawkgirl are two totally different people, don't you? Different ends of the spectrum."

"Don't rub it in."

"Green Lantern may appreciate something different."

There was a long pause, in which Wally just blinked at the man who'd once been running around in red, green, and yellow spandex, before frowning.

"I have no idea what you're talking about?"

"Uh…right. You do realize, of course, everyone in a three galaxy radius knows you have the hots for GL, don't you?"

That was, actually, something Wally hadn't known. He sat up and tilted his head off to the side. "Three galaxy radius?"

"Yes. There are members of the Green Lantern Core who know Wally. Those big-headed floating guys know." Had Dick just said 'Big Headed Floating Guys'? Was that a sign of a hangover? Did Dick get hangovers? …God, all this thinking was giving him a headache. "Lobo knows."

"Lobo! Christ."

"Yes. You're pretty obvious."

"Well if I'm so obvious, why hasn't GL kicked my ass or told me to knock it off or tied me down to a bed and-" Dick held up a hand to stop him.

"No. Wally…just no." Wally stared at him, not convinced.

"You have handcuffs in your bedside dresser."

"Superhero purposes."

"Riiiight."

"Please get your mind out of the fucking gutter." Dick rolled his eyes. "We are not all as perverse as you are Wally, try to remember that. Anyway I guess Lantern doesn't know."

"But you said everyone knew."

"Except for him. He's kind of…not great in the social skills department."

"That explains the stubble. If he had friends, they'd tell him it's a bad look, you know? I tell him, but he just ignores me." Dick smiled and shook his head before nodding his head towards the phone.

"Detroit. Evil robots."

"Oh. Yeah. I don't like robots." But he got up and sped to the door anyway, throwing it open and ducking just in time to avoid having his face knocked on.

Pale violet eyes stared at him from behind a curtain of black hair. A pierced eyebrow rose up carefully while a hand reached up to rake through shoulder length locks. Wally zeroed in on the hair. He kind of liked it. Maybe he should grow his out.

"Dick, I think your Winged Avenger is here!"

"My what?"

"The hot guy with the wings." Wally smiled at the bemused looking man cheerfully. "I'm Wally, great to meet you, gotta help save Detroit."

He waved then ran around the man and out of the apartment building.

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"…" A violet eye twitched. "He called me your winged avenger. I know I'm hurting for a cool spandex worthy name, but come on."

Dick licked his bottom lip leaning against one of the walls in his apartment and then shrugged. "Wally's a special type of guy."

"Hyper?"

"Yeah, that too."

"He said I was hot. You think I'm hot?"

"Well actually Blair I kind of like the wings."

"Oh?" Blair smirked playfully.

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Ccabello: Thanks. I do aim to please.

Angel: Mmm....cheesecake. I love cheesecake.

Koalared: I should hope its going to be better... I am just getting started after all.

Bloodstar: I love writting Flash. He's so...hyper/random/insecure that it's a writers deam to get into that head of his. John and Wally just have some of the best chemistry, I'd like to think.

Candylyn: Cavities are encouraging actually. This is a big change from my usual angst/insane/heavyhanded fiction. Which isn't to say this isn't all of those things... Like I said, just getting started.

Jade: I agree, there should be more GL/Flash fiction. They have a wonderful way of playing off of each other on the show... I don't see how slash fans could miss it.

CWB: lol. Yes, all hail me, the deliverer of the Slash. I was tired of the lack of slash so I got up and wrote some. If that was a good things remains to be seen...

Spin: Well we did see Flash on the 18th...for about thirty seconds before the Android kicked everyone's ass. And then we saw HG, who I love because she frightens me... but still I would have rather seen Wally. Who do we complain to about that?


	2. Two: And It's All and Then It's Nothing

You and I Got Something

Chapter Two: And its all and then it's nothing

Notes: For some odd reason I am utterly in love with this chapter.

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"You're a liar." Flash declared glaring at Batman. Wonder Woman and Superman were close at hand and turned to watch what was sure to be a scene. (Flash was just that sort of guy)

Batman just stared at him. There was a moment of silence, broken by the frantic scream of a woman as she ran from a silver tentacled robot of evil. Flash spared her a distracted glance then turned back to the black clad man.

"You said the robots kidnapped GL." He said, making a vague gesture to Green Lantern who seemed to holding a conversation with Green Arrow on the top of a nearby building. "And he clearly hasn't been Lantern-napped. So you lied."

"You'll get over it."

Flash frowned while crossing his arms over his chest. "I will not. I refuse to get over it. I have a splitting headache and I was in the middle of a major epiphany."

So what if his 'epiphany' was a direct result of running cross-country with the thought that Lantern may have been abducted? Well that and the realization that Dick had pretty much been right about the everyone but the amazingly socially hopeless Green Lantern being aware of his crush-type-possible-obsession-thingy.

Though on a serious note he was pretty sure Dick was over-exaggerating just slightly. Because really, even Lobo? That was just unheard of. The guy was even denser that Wally was rumored to be. (And that was pretty fucking dense. Not that the rumors about his supposed stupidity were true. It wasn't like he didn't know he had a thing for Lantern.)

"Can you even spell 'Epiphany' kid?" Lantern asked as he set down next to him. Flash shrugged.

"Does it matter? Is spelling really needed in this line of work?" Green Lantern looked ready to retort but Wonder Woman spoke first.

"What sort of epiphany did you have?"

He smiled at her. Diana was one of his favorite people in the world because, for better or worse, she was always interested in the lives of those around her. Maybe it was a chick thing or something but as long as he wasn't hitting on her she seemed more than happy to treat him like the little brother she'd never had.

"This isn't really the time-" Superman started but Wonder Woman cut him with a glare.

"If you don't have time for your friends than who in the world do you have time for?" She put a hand on her hip as if daring him to speak. Flash had to bow before her superior female-scariness-mojo. Even Batman couldn't stand up to her once she got going.

"Have I mentioned how scary your girlfriend is?" Lantern asked. Batman looked decidedly sour, or as sour as Batman could look, but didn't speak.

"I can't really go into details." He said trying to fight the urge to look at Lantern and failing miserably. He would have liked to think no one noticed but Wonder Woman smirked and Superman offered a small smile. (He could say for sure but he was almost positive he could _feel_ Batman rolling his eyes behind that cowl of his.) "But I think I finally realized I need to get some things in order."

"Starting with your apartment I hope." Lantern deadpanned.

"Look, Mr. I-don't-even-own-a-TV-and-tuck-in-my-corners, there is nothing wrong with my apartment. It's classic mid-twenties bachelor chic."

"If you say so kid." He looked skeptical. Flash would have said something truly witting and awe inspiring, or so he liked to think, but Booster Gold went flying past and became a lovely fixture in the concrete. Lantern arched an eyebrow. "Can you believe people mistake this guy for me?"

"But he's…gold."

Lantern shot him a look that said, more or less, no shit genius. Flash was glad for the mask because he felt himself starting to blush and there was nothing worse than a pale, freckled redhead turning bright pink. His skin clashed with his hair and it was just horrible.

"Are you five planning to help?" A disgruntled Supergirl demanded.

"We were hoping you could handle it." Superman admitted, shrugging. "It's only a couple robots. It's a good chance for you to show what you're made of."

The blonde girl's lips pressed into a thin line. "How many robots constitute a couple?"

Flash turned and looked over his shoulder then groaned. Hovering about fifty yards in the air was a giant ship and from the ship more metallic demon spawns were falling, hundreds at a time. Lantern chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"I take it you haven't gotten over that robot thing."

"I hate robots."

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He fucking hated robots. Yep. Hated. And all things electronic. He was going to have to detroy his DVD player. Because it was clearly evil. Maybe even working with the evil robots.

Stranger things had happened after all.

Flash considered that hatred of robots and all things electronic as well as the potential allaince he'd just uncovered, as he walked through the ship.

….

Yes, walked. Some may be shocked to know this but he did possess the ability to walk at a semi-normal pace when the situation called for it. And this situation did. He needed to use stealth and while it occurred to him that nothing was more stealthy then moving faster than the eye could possible follow Batman insisted that wasn't needed.

Then again, he was very upset at Batman. Not because he'd dared to use his weird John-obsessed thoughts against him, though that had something to do with it. No, it was because Batman let Lantern actually get captured by the robots.

For real this time.

They'd splintered into groups of three to take out the robots while GL, Bats, and Superman stormed the proverbial castle. It hadn't gone well since four hours later they were all sitting in the Javelin while the rookies sat around the sulked. It was about this point that Flash noticed the object of his obsession was elsewhere.

"Where's GL?"

Superman looked decidedly sheepish. "The Robots are holding him captive."

Flash twitched. "Look, I'm here already. There is no need to pull that again."

Batman scowled at him. "Use your actual head for a few seconds. Do you think Superman would actually say something like that if it wasn't true?"

"What do you mean 'use my actual head'?" And then he paused as two things hit him. Batman was saying he thought with his dick (which wasn't true. He was 25, not 15) and Superman wouldn't lie about this sort of thing. Not usually anything. Which lead to: "Fuck."

"Sounds about right." Arrow agreed. "I don't get it. How could you two, the Great Detective and the Savior of the World, lose Green Lantern to a bunch of machines?"

Flash decided he rather liked Green Arrow in that moment. He'd been thinking something along those lines but he couldn't actually say them, because underneath the cowl he was still just Wally. _And Wally didn't have much on noble and fearless Clark Kent or Caring Billionaire Bruce Wayne, who took in kids and gave ridiculous amounts of money to charity._

Alas, no, he was just Wally. He was a part time college student (as being a superhero didn't help one get a degree) full time slacker and a kid, as Lantern was so fond of pointing out.

Where as Arrow…well Arrow could say that sort of thing. He had pull and the stones and the right. Hell, he even had a ward of his own. True, Roy had ended up on drugs...and a total manwhore...and a single teenage father...

Maybe that wasn't the best thing to bring up in Arrow's favor.

"My fault. I made an error in judgment and Lantern got captured as a result." Batman said as deadpan as ever. Perhaps Diana sensed something because, for an instant, she reached out and touched his hand. It was a quick touch and then she pulled her hand back and was back in Wonder Woman mode, ready for action.

"So what're we going to do?" She asked. "We have to get Lantern back fast. The more people we have experienced in stopping world takeover the better."

"Wait, they want to take over the world?" Flash asked, frowning. "Didn't we just stop a world invasion? Aren't we entitled to at least a month in between?"

"Why don't you take it up with them later?" Arrow suggested lightly. Undaunted Flash smiled.

"I think I will. Maybe get them to arrange to invade next week, during my English Lit final."

Diana laughed softly and Arrow looked amused but, per usual, Superman and Batman looked as stoic as ever. Sometimes Flash was willing to swear those two became devoid of all sense of humor when they put on the cape.

"The machines have threatened to kill Lantern if we don't stop our attack on their units." Batman said once they had all regained a form of seriousness.

"So lets surrender." Flash said then blinked and looked around in shocked confusion. "Did anyone else hear me say that or was it just me who heard me say that? Because I distinctly heard myself saying something really stupid but if no one else heard it than it's okay."

He really needed to get better control of his mouth.

Batman regarded him with an air of someone who spent entirely too much time dealing with idiots. And Flash kind of took offense to that. Really, he was only 25.

"If you can't do this objectively-"

"So you did hear me say that. It was the strangest thing, I heard myself but I couldn't remember deciding to say anything."

Once he'd managed to stop his mouth from moving independent of his brain, as it was oh-so fond of doing, they'd devised a plan. He'd get GL out and the rest would blow up the ship.

It was their usual sort of plan. Grab and Destroy. Flash especially liked the whole 'He gets to rescue Green Lantern' part of the plan.

He almost giggled at the image of himself on a horse saving 'poor damsel in distress Lantern'. Only he didn't because he was far too manly to be giggling.

Finding the other man wasn't a hard task. J'onn was up in the Watchtower and was more than happy to direct him to where he needed to go, but homing onto GL's communicator frequency. Or something along those lines. Safe to say Flash had zoned when all the technical stuff had been explained. Not that he wouldn't get it...he just didn't care.

It didn't occur to him that maybe he should care in case he ever got into any serious-I'm-in-need-of-rescuing type trouble, but he'd never been much for thinking ahead anyway.

He was creeping along a passageway that, according to J'onn, would bring him right to where Lantern was being held. And then the ground underneath his feet shuddered and the entire ship erupted into total chaos.

A door he hadn't seen flew open and he was pretty sure he felt his nose being crushed. He stumbled back, cursing Batman and his stupid stealth ideas, when a hand grabbed him. He could feel the cool metal through his suit and sighed.

He fucking hated Batman.

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"What the hell are you doing up here?" Lantern asked as he hauled Flash to his feet. They were both in a small cell which contained one transparent wall, a small cot, and a window. Everything else was made of sleek silver metal.

He pulled his cowl off and put a hand to his nose and found it was oozing blood. Lantern grimaced and reached out. Wally could feel his warmth and had to make a concentrated effort to not shiver at the touch as his head was tilted back.

"That looks nasty."

"It's fine."

He was lying. He was pretty sure his nose was broken and it hurt like a bitch but it could wait until later to worry about. It wasn't like he was going to die from a nosebleed or something. He'd just blow the evil robot up later, thus getting his revenge, then toddle off to the infirmary on the tower.

Only maybe without the toddling.

...he was clearly spending too much time with Bart. He was beginning to think like that kid sounded. And thinking of Kid, he wondered if he could sue for name stealing...

"We have to get out of here." He said after shaking the thought away. "We're blowing up the ship."

Lantern's lips twitched. "Of course we are. Would I assume too much if I asked what the plan was?"

"Yep. I was just the rescue party."

"…And who's idea what that?"

"Batman."

"He must be slipping."

Wally glowered at him from behind his hand. "Would it kill you to be a little more appreciative? I did just get my nose broken you know."

"And that's my fault how exactly?"

"I was trying to rescue you."

"Wasn't my idea."

"Prick."

Lantern just grinned then batted his hands away and looked at his nose carefully. The bleeding had more or less stopped and it was quickly going from overwhelming pain to dull ache, much to Wally's appreciation.

However without the pain distracting him he was now very much aware of the fact that Green Lantern was touching him. And not just touching him, really, but had his hands on either side of his face to tilt it up and hold him still and was watching him with the single-mindedness that only GL could manage. He could feel his entire body flush and suddenly wished he'd left the mask on.

His blush either didn't make it to his face or was ignored by the other man because GL didn't comment on it. Not that the situation got any better from there.

Lantern shifted just slightly and suddenly they were a lot closer. …Well, maybe not a lot but it sure as hell felt that way. He could literally feel the heat from Green Lantern's body and his body was…well, it wasn't being kind to him.

Damn form-hugging customs. If Lantern looked down he'd be exposed in more ways that one and the idea made his stomach twist. It wasn't a frightening enough fact to calm what was quickly becoming an unwanted hard on.

And goddamn those glowing green eyes.

Damn them and that stupid green-eye making power ring and even those freaky bigheaded guys because damn but those eyes were burning through him. He was almost sure that in Lantern tried hard enough he could pull a Clark Kent and see right though his skin and into his brain and maybe be able to read ever single perverse thought that was currently flitting through his brain and he thought that maybe that wouldn't be such a terrible thing…

Only he was having some wickedly dirty thoughts because of those fucking burning neon eyes and that custom that hugged every hard plane of John's body and then some and fucking hell he needed to get away from Lantern before he did something stupid like jump him.

A suddenly revelation hit him.

He was gay.

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Angel: Hotness huh? I haven't even gotten started yet! **_Cackles evilly._**

Ccabello: As you wish.

Nameless: If no one minds me saying so, blending the comics and cartoon together is harder than I thought it would be. There has been lots of "Well how much of this can I include" and thumbing through my (sad and pathetically) large collection. I mean, I don't want to wander into the 30th century or anything… And you're most likely right about the Smallville thing. It's so hard to choose…I love Smallville and MR as Lex gives me chills, but I do so love superhyperactiveADDposterchild! Flash as well. (And there is no such thing as a too long review.)

Candy: I certainly wouldn't mind a short smutty JL/Flash fic but…well my muses don't work that way. Something about plot…stupid muses. I say we revolt. I'll bring pitchforks. Anyway, lol. Thanks. And I'm sorry about the delay but I was researching. (AKA: Got the latest issue of Flash and got distracted.)

Ellen: Ah…yeah. Donna…well you see, what had happened was… Oh look, dancing Flash. :)

Zhang: I'm glad you liked the 'running gag' with the wings. It just seemed like something a mildly insecure Wally would wonder about, you know?

Sarky: So you can relate to poor hungover Wally's plight, what with the evil robots and lying Batman and such, then. Hope your head is better.


	3. Three: Is This Song For Nothing

You and I Got Something

Chapter Three

Is this Song for Nothing

1) In the comic Raven is an empath. I'm not sure if that applies to 'Teen Titans' on Cartoon Network but it doesn't matter much. She, at some point, used her power to convince Wally that he was in love with her. She had good intentions but…you know that's a shitty thing to do. And in this story Wally is decidedly fucked up because of it. He just doesn't know it yet.

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The thing with the robots ended well.

Wally passed out from a mixture of blood lose, what turned out to be a mild concussion and (unbeknownst to most people) the suddenly obvious fact that he was gay. Or Bi. Or something.

Superman had punched a hole in the wall, located and liberated GL's ring from a hapless robot then he and Supergirl flung the ship towards the sun or something like that. Wally found he really didn't care much about how things had ended. He had much more important life altering things on his mind at the moment.

He realized as he pulled on jeans that this should have sunk in long before now…

But it hadn't.

Okay, so he had a thing for John. It'd never really registered on a psychical…sexual…type of level until that moment when his body had gotten 'happy' at the closeness to the other man. It had honestly never even occurred to him that he was gay.

As in attracted to other men. He'd thought, in his own vague way, that an attraction to John was normal because he was John. He was strong and dependable and confident and patient and unshakable and steady and everything that Wally wasn't. On any level. He had this dry ironic sense of humor that Wally loved to play off of, and this way of cutting through all the senseless drivel and getting right to the point.

How could that not appeal to someone no matter who they were? He was everything a person would want. The psychical aspect of it all hadn't really bothered Wally enough to consider until now and that was very worrisome.

After all he'd always been attracted to women hadn't he? Chased after them, lusted after them, tried to get them to give him the time of day… He was well known around the Tower as (a wanna be) ladies man and had attempted to ask many a woman out.

Sure most of them were married, dating, had to wash their hair every time he came around them but that didn't mean anything did it? It wasn't like he went out of his way to try and ask out women he knew would turn him down. That'd just be stupid.

What would be the point? It wasn't like anyone would care if he were gay. Everyone who knew about his 'thing' for John took it in stride and they must have thought he was less than straight if they knew he had a thing for John. That made sense.

And it wasn't like he'd never seriously gone out with a woman or was a virgin or something equally silly. There had been Raven…

Then again she had used her powers to manipulate his emotions and make him fall in love with her very much against his will. He still felt sick and kind of…dirty every time he thought about it. Yet he found himself thinking about it anyway and, more importantly, the fact he'd pretty much begun to chase after every girl in sight afterwards.

And they hadn't actually slept together.

So she was a horrible example. Maybe Linda then. They'd gone out for nearly a year and that had gone great. She was a fantastic girl and they'd had a lot in common and she'd offered a ready ear when things got shitty and…

Well.

They'd broken up. He'd been busy with the League and that obsession thing with John has sort of cropped up. Things had sort of fallen apart and fizzled out and that seemed a lot more understandable now than it had then. She'd claimed he just wasn't interested in her the way he should have been…and now they were just very good friends.

So maybe that was a bad example too.

He shuffled his feet for a moment while biting his lower lip. He was almost positive he'd hit upon something big but he couldn't say what it was exactly.

He had a headache suddenly. He flopped back onto his bed and curled up around his pillow trying to order his thoughts. If not for the sake of keeping his brain from exploding then to keep from giving J'onn a major headache. Besides his issues were just that- His.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Diana." J'onn said stopping outside of the Amazon's room. Diana turned and looked at him a smile playing across her lips.

"Yes J'onn?"

"Perhaps if you are not otherwise occupied you would check on Flash." She arched an elegant eyebrow in silent question. The Martian was silent for a moment as he carefully considered his words. "I think…I fear, perhaps, that Wally is going through something very…private. Since he trusts you and Lantern more than he does me I thought it better that you speak to him."

"Ah." She nodded and stood up, smoothing down the skirt she'd changed into. "I take it this matter you don't want to interfere in involves Lantern?"

J'onn just blinked at her. She laughed and strode past him with the air of one who knew more than they should. He refrained from taking a look at her thoughts to find out just how much she knew and instead headed back to his usual station to see if any chaos had broken out on earth in the past ten minutes.

It probably had. This was earth after all and at times it seemed every evil in the universe was after it for some reason or another. Things had never been this dangerous on Mars.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wally didn't bother looking up when a certain princess walked into his quarters. She sat in the chair next to his bed and stayed silent, waiting for him to make the first move. He turned onto his back and stared down the bed at her. Her smile was friendly but her eyes serious.

"What can I do for you Princess?"

"You seem distressed today. I thought you might like to talk about it."

His lips twisted into a scowl. "I hate your boyfriend."

She nodded. "Bruce can be…trying at times. He fights so hard to keep even me an arms length away and delicate situations are occasionally…taken advantage of by him."

Wally blinked. "I was talking about losing Lantern."

"Oh."

There was a moment of mildly amused silence between them before Wally sat up and regarded the woman silently. Then he spoke while plucking at a loose thread in his sheet, careful to keep his tone neutral and unassuming.

After all if he was wrong he didn't want an angry Amazon in his room.

"Back on your island you're probably used to things like two women being together, right? I mean, with that whole no men allowed rule."

This time her smile was more genuine. "Yes it was very common. I must confess I was distressed when I kissed my friend Athena and felt nothing. Not even a tiny spark. I thought I was doomed to a life of loneliness."

Wally smiled. "Must be interesting. Leaving a place where you're an odd one to come to a place where you're perfectly normal and the stuff that happened back home is strange."

"Disturbing would be closer to the truth. People seem so obsessed with what goes on in other people's bedrooms here and then have the audacity to, after obsessing over what other people do and going out of their way to think and talk about, get upset and claim to hate people because of it. If they don't like such acts then why in the world do they go out of their way to find out about them?"

"We call them Christians." Wally muttered before shrugging. "People are funny that way."

"I see nothing funny about it. The violence your people inflict on others because of who they care about is inexcusable. How can you be so cruel to one another?"

In that instant Diana looked much younger than she was and almost innocent. She twirled a stand of hair around her finger as she pondered the strange behavior that 'his people' exhibited and he wondered what it was like to be so naïve. And then she said something that surprised him.

"I worry about you sometimes."

He was pretty sure he looked startled. "You worry about me? Why? I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself."

"As Flash, sure. But as just Wally? Would you really use you abilities on some defenseless person?"

"If they attacked me first are they really defenseless?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Compared to you?"

He was silent for one long moment then looked down at his hands as he went over her words carefully. Finally he turned and buried his face into his pillow as if to block out the thoughts swirling around in his head. It didn't help much.

"I don't know what to do."

"About John?"

"I'm not gay." Wally muttered. "I mean…John. He's John. But I never thoughts that guys would…you know, do it for me. And I'm sure no one cares or anything but its still really not expected. I don't think I want to be 'The gay superhero'."

"I think you worry too much about it." Her lips twitched. "However I did watch a show on TV recently. A young man on it found himself very much attracted to a friend of his and was very distressed about it."

__

Ah, the many wonders of extended cable.

"What'd he do?"

"…I believe he was targeted by his former friend, after confessing his feelings, and was beaten severely. Perhaps that was not the best example I could have chosen."

"Maybe." Wally agreed even as he felt his stomach drop out. John wouldn't do anything like that of course…he was much too calm and reasonable.

"If you aren't sure of your feelings for John, or of yourself, maybe some time off to consider and explore things would be advised."

"Are you telling me to go on vacation?" She shrugged. "Do you have any idea what Batman will do to me if I just run off?"

"I'm sure we won't fall apart without you. I'm sure the second and third fastest men alive will be able to fill in." Her smile was teasing. "And Impulse can look over Central City for a little while can't he?"

"…Have you met Impulse?" Wally asked slowly. He liked the kid just fine, adored him even, but he was a total hyper whack job. If Wally was bad then Impulse was terrible, horrible…he was the Lex Luthor of hyper activity even.

The term ADHD had been crafted with Imp in mind.

"Maybe Robin could help him." Her smile had turned downright plotting. "I'm sure if I ask Batman nicely Robin could be made available for a time."

Wally blinked then shook his head. "Bats has no idea what he's getting in to does he?"

Diana threw her head back and laughed. Wally nodded to himself. Yeah, Bruce had _no_ idea what he was in for with Diana as his girl. He'd pity the man if not for the fact that Bruce had this tendency to be an evil asshole when he wanted to be.

He stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. "I think you're right. A little vacation won't hurt anything and I think there's someone I want to see anyway."

"Mind if I ask?"

Wally shrugged. "Just a friend. Haven't talked to him in a while but I think maybe he can help me sort me out." She nodded and stood up as well. She flashed him one last smile then walked out of the room to…well, do whatever it is she did.

As he gathered up his things he wondered if Piper would mind him dropping in.

-

-

-

Jade: I'm glad you thought so. Hyperfreakingout! Wally is so cute.

Zhang: Yeah. Wally's the king of realizing things a few moments after everyone else. This is, sadly, a constant theme.. Everyone else knows what's going on and Wally (and John…) are pretty much 'WTF?'. Poor clueless boys. And yes, evil robots, flung into the sun. Revenge complete.

Angel: Maaaaaaaaybe. I can't tell you for sure because…well, because that'd be telling. Lol.

Ellen: All bow before me, master of distracting the readers from uncomfortable questions.

Nameless: About Wally's Age: It's highly possible he was 22. I was lazy and didn't want to actually find out for myself so I just took a stab at it. From now on Wally's 23-ish. I'll go back and change it later. Seriously though, electronics are evil. My computer makes the weirdest sounds late at night. Anyway those were three of my favorite parts as well. That and Flash's inability to shut his mouth. And I understand the MR thing. I'm going into withdrawal…


	4. Four: When You Think About Me

You and I Got Something

Sorry about how long this took. Chapter five was giving me some issues.

Chapter Four

When You Think About Me

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hartley Rathaway was in Wally's honest opinion a man of many hidden depths. Not the least of which was the fact that as the only gay supervillian type that Wally was aware of but he was also the only one Wally knew who'd gone straight.

He shared this apparent irony with Hart over the phone one evening and just got silence in return. Followed by the other man asking what the hell was wrong with him. So, being the honest sort that he was, Wally told him the truth.

__

"I think I'm gay…are you laughing?"

Indeed Hart had been laughing. Hard. Hard enough to drop the phone.

It'd taken some time for get him to stop, mostly at the insistence that he was very much serious. …okay, really that had just made the other man laugh harder. Finally, five minutes passed, and he'd resorted to whining.

__

"C'mon, I could be in the middle of a life altering revelation about my sexuality and…you know, my apparently rampant denial in spite of the fact everyone but I know I'm not striaght. Could you stop laughing for just a second?"

This was followed by a snort and then, finally. "Sorry Wal. It's just…does the phrase 'Me thinks the lady doth protest too much' mean anything to you?"

"**No.**"

"Right." Another short laugh then Hart had hung up the phone. Feeling rather defeated Wally had flopped back onto his couch and pulled a cover over his head.

An hour later a very amused blond was standing at the entrance of his apartment. Hart was leaning against the door frame, one eyebrow arched while his eyes danced with barely contained mirth and a hand in his pocket.

Wally briefly acknowledged the thought that he was actually rather attractive. (He wasn't John or anything and damn but Wally had it bad, but he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes or anything) He wondered why exactly he'd never noticed that before.

"Are you drunk?"

"No." But that was actually a pretty good idea now that he thought about it. Except for that whole impending hangover thing. Wally shook his head to rid himself of the thought then yelped when Hart took him by the hand and started leading him away. "Hey, what-"

"We're going out. I hate to be the one to tell you this but your place isn't exactly fit for human occupation."

Wally had to admit he had a legitimate point. It'd been two weeks since he'd decided, or been talked into depending on how you took it, his little vacation and he'd done nothing but eat takeout, watch cartoons, and sleep.

His idea of a vacation wasn't too elaborate or complex. Maybe it was the line of work he was in that made it that way but he'd found that the simple things in life that he'd enjoyed before that freak lightening accident were the things he most appreciate. He missed watching hours of mind rotting sugar coated kiddie violence and being able to sleep normal hours.

He was also struck by the strange phenomenon of how spending too much time sleeping made one tired all over again. He dimly remembered such occurrences from weekends when he was younger but it'd been a while since he'd been able to spend the entire day doing nothing.

Thus far his vacation rocked. Sure he hadn't figured anything out in the past seven and a half days but he hadn't been stressed out or upset over it either. Who needed a cruise or hiking or any of that shit when you could just lay in bed and stare at the people on the street below?

He supposed there was a touch of irony in that. When Batman had first revealed himself as Bruce Wayne his internal reaction had been 'Damn. He's rich and one of the ultimate good guys. How unfair.'

But really what did Bruce do with that fortune of his? Make bigger and badder bat weapons? It wasn't like he dared to enjoy what he had.

So what was the point really?

Wally made a face. Too much complexity for one day. He pushed the thoughts aside and tried to focus on where he was being dragged off to.

--------------

They ended up downtown and walking outside of a Starbuck's, cups in hand. Well Hart was walking out. Wally refused to enter because he was almost positive Satan owned Starbuck's and was intent on stealing their souls through sinfully delicious coffee. He'd run this idea past John once and had gotten this smile that was half indulgent and half 'god somebody save me from this kid'.

Most of the smiles John graced him with were like that. Like he was torn between humoring him and his slightly rampant insanity and just turning and walking away. Wally appreciated the fact John always stood around and let him ramble himself out. He also appreciated the way John listened, like it was something really fascinating and worth listening to.

Which Wally knew it wasn't. He didn't take himself seriously most of the time and he was surprised that anyone gave him half the time of day sometimes. But that was just how John was. Why Wally didn't know, but he was.

"Wally?" A hand waved in front of his face and he jumped, taken aback. Hart hid a snicker behind his cup. He offered Wally the one in his other hand then indicated for him to follow. They started down the sidewalk in companionable silence.

Wally eyed his cup and, more accurately, the mass of foam at the top and the caramel swirled over it, then took a sip. And groaned before sighing.

"How pathetic is it that this is the closest I've come to an assisted orgasm in over a year?"

Hart looked upwards while a woman with a child holding on to each hand took a unnecessarily wide arc around them. Wally blinked then took another drink.

Whatever.

"I don't think I wanted to know that." Hart said finally.

Wally smiled cheekily. "Yet you can't stop thinking about it?"

"You wish." Hart laughed.

Wally snorted behind his cup. "_You_ wish."

"How many times must I explain it to you?" He let out a long suffering sigh. "What you mistake for me flirting with you is really just me trying to boost your tragically low self-esteem."

"Riiiight."

"So what's wrong?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?"

"You've got the Afro'd wonder running around saving the city, you're up before noon on what seems to be your day off and you seem to be considering-"

"Batting for my own team?"

The blond frowned. "Do me a favor and clear that analogy from your mind. They could revoke my gay card for letting you say that sort of stuff."

"There's a card?"

"Mmhmm. I'd let you see mine but it's getting laminated today."

"What other sort of things do you get?"

"A toaster oven with every successfully converted straight man and a copy of the gay agenda. And a fruit basket if you can corrupt an innocent child. Can't forget the fruit basket."

Wally's mouth twitched. "Have you ever considered 'Masked Fruit' as a name?"

"Only when I'm depressed. So why are you suddenly contemplating your straightness?"

"A general lack of attraction to women." Hart's gaze was nothing short of skeptical. "What?"

"I've known you for a few years Wally and seem to remember someone having a slight panic attack when I came out to them." It had not been a panic attack. …not exactly anyway. "So somehow I think it's more than you suddenly coming to the conclusion you don't like women."

This was as bad as trying to talk to Dick. It was a real pain in the ass when people were able to so completely see through him and his mask.

"Why does everyone have to look for a deeper meaning? I just happened to realize I don't like women, why does there have to be something going on behind it?!"

A few more people stopped and stared before hurrying along their way. Wally took a sip of his drink and considered the scene he was probably making. Two twentysomthings walking down the sidewalk only to have one suddenly stop and proclaim very loudly that he wasn't attracted to women and that there was nothing more to it.

He hoped they didn't get arrested for traumatizing people. He didn't want to have to call Iris to bail him out of prison. She might not do it. Apparently Bart had been on some sort of weirdo sugar high since he'd been tapped to take care of things for him. Wally was inclined to believe that the kid needed to get out more if this was all it took to make him happy.

Not that he was one to talk.

Hart tsked. "Come on Wal, don't make me treat you like some kind of redheaded step-child-"

Wally wasn't able to contain his bark of laughter. Hart's mouth twitched but he managed to keep from letting any sound loose. People on the sidewalk graced them with a few odd looks, as if men standing in the middle of the sidewalk just this side of tears wasn't an everyday occurrence.

Hart just rolled his eyes and, after checking to make sure no trucks would be plowing him over, jogged across the street and towards a park. Wally watched him go while leaning against a lamp post and trying to regain control. It took a few moments but he finally did. He tossed his cup away then ran after Hart. He caught up to him in a matter of seconds then fell into step beside him.

A few kids ran past in bathing suits and shorts, undoubtedly heading for the pool in the center of the park. It was a good idea since it was pretty hot outside. Late July and early August in Central City never failed to be hot and sticky to the point of being annoying.

Crime and crazy people seemed to multiple around these times as if the heat drove people out of their heads.

"So?"

"So?"

"So why did you decide to call me?"

Wally made a show of looking offended. "I can't just call my friends to hang out?" Hart shot him an annoyed look and, sensing that it wasn't just for show, Wally let the act drop. "You know who Green Lantern is right?"

"The one with the green glow right? He's kind of cute."

"I've noticed." Wally said dully.

"And therein lies the problem?"

"No…and yes. It doesn't bother me that I have a thing for Lantern. I've known for months, since before Linda and I broke up even. It's this whole 'I just realized he's really sexy and I kind of want to fuck him' aspect that has me messed up." Hart arched an eyebrow and light blue eyes seemed to be searching him very carefully. "He's…I…it's like… You've seen him. Stop looking at me like that."

"I wasn't saying anything." Hart held up a hand defensively then shoved it back into his pocket. "Does it bother you?"

"The way you were looking at me? Yeah."

"No, the wanting to fuck him thing. I swear this is worse then trying to reason with psychos."

"Oh." Wally tilted his head to the side. "Not exactly bother. More like…surprised. Isn't this the sort of thing you usually know before you're in your twenties?"

"Sometimes. Some people don't ever want to know."

"I guess." He looked up at the sky. It was about noon and the sun was directly overhead but the trees that lined the side of the brick pathway blocked it out. "And for that matter do you think it should have bothered me?"

"Possibly. But, and I don't know if you're aware of this, you're weird."

"I try." Hart snorted then tilted his head off to the side slightly.

"So you have a crush on one of your male teammates and you decided to bother your, if you don't mind me assuming, only gay friend for some sort of advice? I'm flattered." There was a note of sarcasm to his voice and Wally frowned before shaking his head.

Sometimes he was almost positive that no one he knew had any kind of faith in him.

"Of course not. It was more like bother one of my only real friends. If I wanted to just talk to anyone who was gay I could have went and talked to Nightwing."

Though to be honest he wasn't sure Dick was so much gay or even bi as he was insane. Not that Dick being insane had anything to do with his dating habits (Though some may wish to argue that) so much as Dick being insane already put him way outside of the box. What was dating men, women, and the occasional alien to a guy like Dick?

Wally however wasn't really that secure in the knowledge that it was okay to be weird. Part of him still longed for the normal life he'd lost when he'd become Kid Flash.

Hart seemed a little more at ease upon hearing that. Wally guessed that Hart didn't want to be 'The Gay friend' anymore than Wally wanted to be 'That gay superhero'.

"I've got it all figured out." Hart announced finally as a wide smirk curved his lips. "I know exactly what you need to do."

"And for some odd reason that frightens me. You aren't having an evil relapse or anything, are you?"

"Hmm? Of course not." Hart waved a hand dismissively. "The first thing you need to do is introduce me to that Dove guy. We share political views."

Wally had to admit he doubted that. Hart wanted to over throw the government (from time to time. Depended on how things were going) and Dove was pro-peace. Somehow anarchy and peace didn't seem similar in Wally's mind. If not for the fact Hawk was such a fan of the government Wally would have suggested that Hart would get along better with him.

But he decided not to say that since he was sure Hart was already aware of it.

Which besides the fact he wasn't sure Dove was gay. Or would be interested in a slightly manic political activist even if he were. Then again Dove was kind of a slightly manic political activist himself, wasn't he?

"And then you should do whatever seems right." Hart concluded.

Wally rolled his eyes. "You're so fucking helpful. Have you been watching after school specials again?" First Diana and now this.

Hart shrugged. "I was trying to keep it as simple as possible so as not to hurt your brain. I mean let's be logical for a minute Wally. This guy has been all over the universe, seen all sorts of amazing things, and defended all kinds of…uh, wrongdoing. Somehow I doubt you having a thing for him is going to prompt him to knock you senseless. And, more than that, its really hard to get a date in this line of work."

"Weren't you dating some guy?"

"I've dated a lot of 'some guys'. We can't just date some guy, or some girl. Sadly not all of us have the capacity for those epic type romances and it'd be easier to find someone who understands what's going on than it would be to try and make a relationship work with someone who can never really know who you work with, where you'll be at any given moment, or if you're going to come home that night." Hart paused for a moment. "And then you run the risk of someone getting caught up in something they can't handle. If something had happened to Linda while you were together what would you have done?"

Wally didn't say anything. He assumed Hart took that for agreement because the blond sighed and shrugged again.

"If Lantern is aware of how hard happiness is to find he may be willing to give your flaky, immature, hyper ass a shot."

"Huh. That was kind of deep." And really unexpected. Not to accuse Hart of being shallow or anything…

Hart bowed. "That's me, the next Confucius."

"Confused, maybe. Confucius…eh."

"Bastard."

"Your point?"

"So, about the Dove thing-"

"I wouldn't try it. His brother can, and will, kill you."

"Well that's why it's fun. It'd be easy to go up to some guy and go 'Hey, I'm the Flash-"

"Only you aren't."

"Sleep with me.'" Hart ignored him. "But there's no fun in that. The challenge is what makes these things worthwhile."

"You need to get out more. I could go for something easy."

Hart quirked an eyebrow. "You free Saturday?"

"When I said easy," Wally deadpanned. "I meant something not complicated, not someone slutty."

"You wound me Wally. Really." But Hart's smile was wide and it was clear that Wally had done nothing of the sort. Hart slung an arm around his shoulder and began steering him back towards the park entrance. Wally chuckled but allowed the other man to lead the way. "Oh, before I forget, I plan to hold this entire conversation over your head and taunt you mercilessly for the rest of your life."

"I'm not surprised."

"It's kind of sweet. You in love with Green Lantern and getting all stressed out over it. It's like an episode of _Dawson's Creek_ on crack. And with less bored upstate types. And no boats."

"Shut it."

"I'm just saying…Wally."

"Hmm?"

"Friend of yours?"

Wally looked up from the ground. And then looked further up. Standing not six feet above them with a hand on her hip was Supergirl. Her bright blue eyes flickered from Hart to him then back to Hart. Wally frowned.

"You know I'm on vacation right? Strictly non-saving the world type activities."

"Clearly." Her tone was nothing short of dry. "Android is heading for earth and we're holding an emergency gathering at the Tower. You didn't answer you summons and you've been blocking J'onn out."

"Because it's my vacation. I left _Flash_ at home and maybe I don't want the Martian in my head today."

Wally was dangerously close to whining. Half because he really didn't want to go and half because he…well, didn't want to go. Now that he was in the middle of this little vacation he was kind of starting to enjoy it.

"You can't just leave it at home and you know blocking J'onn is dangerous." She had both hands on her hips and she looked furious. Another two seconds and she'd start channeling Batman or Superman. Or, even worse, both. At the same time.

He looked at Hart who smiled mildly before removing his arm. Wally shot a none too discreet glare at Supergirl (and winced internally because Green Arrow was going to kick his ass if he found out he was being an ass to Kara.) before running towards his apartment.

Maybe it was selfish or bad hero form but he really wasn't in the mood to end his vacation so he could get his ass kicked by some suped up android.

Stupid fucking robot things.

---

---

---

Angel: I'm sorry. Sorry darlin'

Spin: I'll see if I can't fit something about Tim and Bart into the next chapter. I had to juggle the idea of having Piper being helpful and have him be sadistic…I went with helpful with potential to annoy the hell out of Wally later.

Kirke: You don't like Diana? Huh. She's like fourth on my 'favorite characters' list. Maybe because she reminds me of my older sister Claudia. Sweet and sincere but kind of naïve about certain things. Or at least that's the way I see her. Oh well. I did laugh at the Ms. Shorts thing.

Ellen: Meh. Don't hate her, that's a bit extreme. I actually like Raven, I just think that the whole manipulating Wally thing was…well, shitty. 'Specially considering Wally is slightly less than 'together'… But more about that later.

Less: Um. See, one of the few upsides of being gay is that I'm not expected to have children… But I do accept gifts of cash. -

Navis: Your wish is my command, and all that stuff.

Nameless: (Grin) Hello, my name is Dmitri and I'm hopelessly addicted to MR. I think Diana and Audrey had some serious sparks but that's a story for later this year, so for the time being she's straight. And Wally's evasive tactics will come up again later, so good to you for noticing he kind of changed the subject.


	5. Five: Misunderstand Me

You and I got Something

Finally we get to crawl into John's head. It took me almost a month to write this (hence the delay on chapter five) but here it is. And let's not wish anything bad on Kara. She hasn't gone spreading 'untruths' on purpose.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter Five

Misunderstand Me

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

John had come to the conclusion some time ago, while camped out in Wally's apartment and watching a terrible movie and cracking jokes, that there was something about the younger man that made things seem less bleak. And it wasn't like Wally had this overwhelming sunny demeanor or was overly cheerful or even really optimistic, because he wasn't.

Wally was actually kind of twisted in his own way.

John kind of liked that about him.

It wasn't often you met someone as…well, sickeningly honest as Wally was. Someone so human. Maybe it was that he'd been at this entirely too long but John didn't see things like a 'normal' person would see them. He saw them in something that wasn't quite black and white, but was pretty damn close.

It was like…even when things were bleak he was obligated to not comment on it. It was always optimism and eternal hope and saving people from evil, but always stopping just shy of really stopping it. He couldn't deviate from that and things could never be hopeless and he could never let himself lose it. Because they were beacons of light in the darkness, the protectors of the world and all the worlds around it and all of the shit they teach you

But Wally didn't always hope. He didn't have the ability to always hope.

And when he thought a situation was screwed up he said it and when he thought things were hopeless he was more than happy to riff on just how hopeless they were.

It annoyed some people (Superman came to mind. He and Wally clashed over Wally's unique type of inspiration constantly. You would have thought after that trip to the world without Wally that he would have learned to appreciate it, but that wasn't the case.) but to John it was refreshing.

Being a hero meant you could only tell a certain kind of truth.

Wally just told the truth and if you didn't like it you had better close your ears and walk away because it just kept coming.

Sometimes you needed to hear the truth, even when it was less than moving and awe-inspiring. And the truth always made things seem less…daunting. Somehow facing down a hoard of man eating aliens and having Wally say, in that bright way of his, that they were about to fight a bunch of aliens interested in swallowing their vital organs made it less terrible.

And John kind of figured that was how the Justice Lords lost their way when they lost Wally. They lost the human element, the part that pointed out just how sad, fucked up, and absurd their lives were. The thing that made it possible to laugh at themselves and stop them from taking it too seriously. They lost their humanity and lost touch with what they were trying to protect…lost sight of the line between hero and dictator.

Protector and Jailer. Because really the line was thin. Sure, they could lock the Earth away and never again would it be threatened and never would people have to worry, but would being safe matter if they had no freedom?

It was strange to think one skinny pale red haired slacker was the one thing standing between him and something he was honestly afraid of becoming.

And sometimes it made perfect sense.

-

Kara stepped off of the platform and smoothed down the front of her skirt. Annoyance was practically rolling off of her in waves and a few of those standing near her wisely wandered off to the side. They all knew it was the best way to avoid violence or a stray heat beam from the blond. Not that Kara lacked the ability to control herself.

She was just…temperamental on occasion. And when one combined that with being one of the most powerful beings of a planet things had a tendency to be destroyed or blow up when she was angry.

"Where's Flash?" Superman asked looking away from the screen he and Lantern had been watching. Supergirl frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

"He's busy with his boyfriend."

There was a moment of silence. Superman blinked, looked around…and then blinked again. Wonder Woman, who'd been perched on the edge of a stool looked visibly startled and nearly went pitching forward. Lantern turned, eyebrow arching just so.

Boyfriend. Wally?

"He's what?"

"On some kind of date. With some guy. In some park." She made a vague gesture. "Why does he get a vacation to goof off with some guy but I can't even get through one date with Jimmy without having to save the day?"

"Seniority." Wonder Woman deadpanned. Superman's lips twitched.

"And, of course, Superman isn't Flash's dangerously overprotective cousin." Arrow added. Superman glowered at him but Arrow just tipped his hat obligingly. Seeing he wasn't getting far in that department he glanced back at his cousin.

"What about Flash?"

She shrugged. "He ran off so I assume he plans to make an appearance. He seemed pretty upset about it though. Not that I blame him. Having a date cut short bites."

"This guy-" Lantern started.

"About this tall, blond-red hair, blue eyes." She listed on her fingers. "Kind of cute." (Unbeknownst to her, but obvious to some others, Lantern's lips pressed into a thin line at that.) "They have some sort of date or something on Saturday. Do you know what I'm doing on Saturday?"

"I take it that it doesn't involve a date." Wonder Woman said.

"I wish. I get to help Pa Kent fix the fence." She paused for a moment. "The normal _slow_ way."

"Don't whine." Superman muttered. "I could keep Jimmy busy for the next decade you know."

Her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"Okay, I'm here! No need to worry, everything will soon be under total control!" Flash's voice range out and unknowingly defused what could have been a super family squabble.

Superman snorted loudly but Wally either didn't hear it or had chosen to ignore it. John figured it was the former because Wally could be an asshole when he wanted to be. And lord knew that Superman made John want to be an asshole.

But maybe that didn't extend to all people.

"Took you long enough." Lantern frowned at him. "I'm sorry if the fate of the world is interfering with your personal business Kid, but do you think you could at least attempt to answer next time you're called?"

Flash shot him a winning smile. "I'll consider it. So what's the damage today?"

Lantern's expression was nothing short of exasperated and long-suffering. He leaned over and hit a button. Flash, along with the others, watched in silence as images of the android crashing through the force wall of the Lanterns then go straight thought the planet filled the screen. Flash winced then looked over at Lantern who stared back. He rubbed at his arm anxiously before letting out a breath.

"Well. We're fucked. Per usual." Lantern's lips quirked as the sullen and almost restless air that had been around him seemed to lessen considerably. Lantern couldn't put his finger on it exactly but something about Wally's presence and almost darkly humored attitude put him at ease.

And it was funny because most people wouldn't have expected Flash to be soothing at the best (or was that worst) of times or have such a twisted sense of humor, and certainly not both at the same time or for them to compliment each other.

But they did.

"As always your optimism is very inspiring."

"I try." He shrugged. "So what's the plan? And did Bats come up with it, because I've been noticing that his plans kind of suck lately."

"Yes, no, and I've been getting that feeling lately."

"Heh. So about this plan. How exactly are we going to take out this evil overgrown kitchen appliance? And do you realize this goes right to what I've been saying for months?"

"Not again. Flash-"

"No, I'm serious. It's the electronics GL; they're all fucking nuts. Totally plotting against us. And I bet the Android is their leader." Flash had the audacity to look genuinely excited about this new turn of events and how it would affect his favorite conspiracy theory, and Lantern wasn't sure if he was amused or appalled.

Wait, no. He was appalled. Flash couldn't be serious for even thirty seconds. So he was very much upset and…appalled.

…kind of.

"And here we go again." Superman let out sigh.

"Um." Kara and Arrow exchanged confused looks. They didn't know Wally well enough to realize he was insane and that they were better off not questioning it.

"Don't give me that! We get attacked by robots are least twice a week. That's just not normal."

"You're not normal."

"Normalcy is a scam anyway." Flash looked thoughtful for a moment. "I think it's a Catholic scam."

"What's a Catholic?"

Lantern rolled his eyes upward. They were getting wildly off course. This was to be expected, as distraction was Wally's specialty. And times like this he was glad for it.

Without Wally to lighten the mood he was sure tension would eventually strangle the entire League and turn them into…well, something none of them wanted to be.

-

-

"GL."

Lantern blinked at the sound of Wally's voice in his earpiece. For a moment he put some serious thought into asking the speedster how he'd managed to get patched through to him but thought better of it. It was Wally after all.

When he wanted something things tended to happen.

"What?"

There was a pause then: "Sorry about that thing earlier."

"You mean convincing Diana that we need to attack the pope?"

"…no." He could almost hear Wally's smirk. Figures. "Not showing up when you called. You know if you needed me for anything I wouldn't flake on you on purpose. You're my best friend and all that."

Lantern arched an eyebrow at some far away star. If he didn't know better he would have thought that Wally was having one of those sincere movie-esq moments. "And what prompted this heartfelt apology from you?"

"Why does everyone think I have an ulterior motive?" He sounded almost petulant. An image of Wally pouting flashed through his mind and John sighed mentally. Way to be focused.

"Because it's you."

A sigh. "That hurts John." And that gave him pause because he was pretty sure he could count on one hand the number of times Wally called him John. The younger man seemed more comfortable with 'GL' and he was fine with that.

…kind of.

"…and I figure we're all about to die and it would be a good idea to get any bad feelings sorted out before we get to the pearly gates."

He rolled his eyes. "We are not going to die."

"Bull-fucking-shit." Wally muttered darkly.

He chuckled. "If we live you're buying the beer."

"No way. You'll live just to spite me."

-

-

"You seen Wally?" Lantern asked as he helped pull a slightly scratched up Wonder Woman from the side of a building. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling at a knot absently before shaking her head.

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere." She gestured around what had once been a fairly quiet suburban street. Not it looked like…well like an invincible android had come tearing through while handing some of earth's mightiest their behinds. Some of the other Lanterns were digging said mightiest from the rubble that had once been a barbershop.

A crowd was starting to form and the press would crop up any minute now, demanding to know what had gone on and spouting all that 'the public had a right to know' crap. Lantern hated the media. He didn't even like Clark's girlfriend on the very principal of the matter.

Hell, he didn't really like Clark.

Then again that had nothing to do with the reporting thing.

"So. Did we win?" She asked brightly.

"After a fashion." He decided he didn't want to get too heavily into what he had almost lead the other Lanterns to do inside of the shop. Part of him wondered if he hadn't been walking that line between 'League' and 'Lords' a bit recklessly a few moments ago.

Where the hell was Flash anyway? He was suddenly in the mood for beer and pointless reality TV and Flash was the only one he knew who would go for such unproductive activity.

Plus he didn't have a TV. He'd never felt the need to watch it until he'd begun spending time with Flash outside of saving the world. And they'd stopped hanging out and he'd stopped watching TV and now he had this wicked craving for TV but of course he didn't have one.

…He was beginning to think like Wally spoke.

"I doubt Android will be bothering us anymore and Luthur is still alive."

"…Is that a good thing?"

"Damn if I know."

"Hey John!" The only other human lantern called over to them. John made a face (He really didn't like Kyle) then raised a hand in acknowledgement. Kyle jogged over and, after flashing a wide smile at Diana, then nodded towards the thickening crowd.

"The rest are about to jet. You know how it is, no more alien exposure than is necessary."

"That's fine. Clean up is our favorite part." His voice was a total deadpan but Kyle just blinked. Right. Sometimes he forgot his sense of humor went over some people's heads. "Never mind."

"Right. So…it's good to be back home. If you were serious about leaving for a while-"

"I am."

"I wouldn't mind taking over. I miss it. And things seem to have gotten really interesting around here. I'll try to work on the guys in charge."

Lantern twitched before replying slowly. "Thank you."

"Not a problem."

Lantern nodded and was about to suggest that he go fishing for Supergirl's team when a streak of red went past him. A few seconds later a breeze went by as well, as if trying to catch up with the figure. He looked at Wonder Woman to see if she had noticed it. She just shrugged her shoulders.

"Probably eager to get back to his date." John decided in that instant he didn't like the faint bitterness that his voice held.

Diana's eyes widened. "John-"

He turned away stiffly. He didn't like the understanding he saw spark in her eyes, and he liked the pity he saw there even less. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel bad for him. After all he had this all under perfect control.

As long as he kept busy the lingering ache of Hawkgirl's departure and the strange bitterness that he felt when he realized that Wally had finally given up on cheering him up (sure he'd told Wally to go fuck himself, but he hadn't' expected him to actually give up…) and the strange feeling he got when he realized he actually missed the hyper active redhead, didn't really mean as much. They were just dim feelings, background noise that he could avoid.

They didn't bother him as much as they should have.

Work.

Work was good.

So what if he was walking that thin line he'd been musing about earlier.

"I'm going to see about Supergirl's team. We didn't have a chance on the way down." He left the ground without waiting for an answer.

He could work all of the pain and frustration out of his system and as long as he kept that up he could begin to forget it. He'd simply work it all away. And if he could work a few galaxies away it'd be even easier to do.

In theory anyway.

He often found that theory and fact had little to nothing in common with each other. Some un-thought of factor always seemed to rear its head and bite him in the ass just when he thought he had everything under control.

With his luck his new station would be a planet of redheads.

His lips quirked at the thought.

Of course hair colored didn't have anything to do with anything. It was more…uniqueness. Both were unlike anyone he'd ever met before and he'd met a lot of different beings from all over the galaxy. Finding someone different was a rare thing indeed.

Everyone he'd ever felt for was that way. Different. New. It was…intriguing and he sort of liked the unpredictability that being unique came with. He was, by nature, a very in order and predictable person and sometimes he liked having the boat rocked.

Thought where Wally was concerned he imagined it was more 'constant' than 'sometimes' and yet that didn't bother him much. It was almost endearing in a strange sort of way how open and reckless Wally lived his life.

And strange was pretty much par for the course.

-

-


	6. Six: Who I am

You and I got Something

Notes: Uh yeah…John doesn't really like much of anyone. He's anti-social I think. Just be content in the knowledge that the list of people John likes is…about six people long. Maybe. There is a chance I'm being overly optimistic.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter Six

Who I am

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Batman had announced to him, shortly after the Android incident, that he had tower duty for the next two weeks. That meant a rousing three hundred and twenty hours, give or take a few, of monitor duty, job assigning, and the boring diplomatic duties no one else wanted to get stuck with.

On the upside he got to bother John for the next two weeks. It was an unspoken rule that only certain people had monitor duty with certain other people, to avoid any major incidents, and Wally was regulated to Diana, John, J'onn, and Dove. Which wasn't so bad when you considered Hawk was only allowed to work with Dove or that John could work with just about anyone but Superman.

There was some kind of weird power struggle going on there that Wally was pretty sure he wasn't privy to. He couldn't explain it but he got the feeling that John didn't like Superman. Which was understandable in a way… They were kind of opposites. John was low-key and hated the limelight. He did his job quickly and effectively then came back to the tower to see what else needed to be done. Where as Supes stood for 'Truth, Justice, and the American Way'.

The man gave interviews. John had to keep himself from throwing the media into the sun most of the time. And Clark had this ability to make…friends wherever he was. People flocked to him and you only had to glance in his quarters to see it. It was just a friendly area.

And then you had John. Who didn't even own a TV. Because he was John.

Wally looked around his room in the Watchtower with a slight frown.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with it exactly. He was just sort of noticing for the first time that it didn't exactly say anything about him.

There were posters of girls in swimsuits, bands he didn't really are for personally, and newspaper clippings mentioning the League all tacked up on the eggshell colored walls. It looked like something your average guy would have. He chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully.

Diana's room looked like something straight out _Cleopatra, _aside from the computer and other 'modern' convincesIt was pretty obvious to anyone who walked past that the Amazon was trying to recapture some of what she had lost in her new home.

Kara's room spoke of a girl in high school. Pendants displaying _Crows_ in bold red decorated her walls, along with pictures of friends and boyfriend, as well a picture of her family.

Hawk and Dove's rooms were on opposite ends of the spectrum, much like they were; yet it seemed obvious the inhabitants were close. Hawk was neat and orderly (Something which Wally learned went around with that Military Guy thing) and Dove was…scatterbrained. His room looked worse than Wally's apartment sometimes and that was saying something. But at the same time there was something of the other in there. In Dove's room it was the neat desk with an American flag mug in the corner. In Hawk's it was a poster of a deadpan looking smiley face with the words 'I'm smiling on the inside. Really.', scribbled under it.

People's rooms said something about them.

Wally's didn't say much about him.

He wondered if he was having one of those soul-searching moments people had occasionally. There had to be a limit on how many of those things a guy was allowed to have in a month because he was feeling kind of…overwhelmed at the moment.

Which had nothing to do with the fact that John wanted to leave the League and leave them with that idiot of a Lantern. Nope…because Wally didn't care about that at all. John was, after all, a grown man and if he wanted to be a pussy and run away because his girlfriend had betrayed him, then so the fuck what? If John wanted to abandon them because his heart had been broken, fine.

Wally tore down one of the band posters and tossed it into the center of the room. Strangely enough he actually felt a lot better. He grabbed the corner of the next one and pulled.

Sometimes he just didn't get John. It wasn't like he was the only one affected. Wally wouldn't go so far as to call himself unlikable but he knew he tended to get on people's nerves. Superman and Batman, in one of their rare areas of agreement, seemed to think he couldn't be serious about things. They thought he was a joker and a kid and he didn't mean kid like how John used it.

They meant it to be an insult. John used it…well, Wally didn't mind when he used it.

Because, of course, he was hopeless in love with John. Duh. He had covered this point of conversation already.

Anyway.

Hawkgirl had gotten him. Where Diana was a like an older sister who was always willing to sit around and help him see the upside, Shayera had been like that crazy aunt you weren't allowed to be around when you were younger. She cracked foul jokes, started fights in bars, and scared the living hell out of anyone with half a brain.

And Wally had loved that about her, but even more than that she was one of the precious few that understood him. She'd been at the hero thing for a long time but she'd never looked down on him or Diana as 'new kids' in need of guidance (it was funny how the fact that he'd been Kid Flash and risked his life for years seemed to escape people when they were busy being condescending) or been anything but totally honest.

When he fucked up she let him know, but when he did a good job she let him know it. She wasn't going to coddle him but she didn't expect him to slack off when he was needed either. He could easily see how she could have been a leader to her people.

There was something about her that made you want to trust her, believe in her, no matter what and stick by her to the end.

And he would have. He would have taken on the entire League on her behalf. But she couldn't allow that, wouldn't let them split over her. She wasn't going to let anyone fight about her.

Which had hurt in a strange sort of way. Shayera and John had always been quick to come to his defense when he made a mistake (And the number of mistakes he'd made was greatly exaggerated. At first he'd been a little, as in constantly getting smacked with things that shouldn't have been able to touch him, but he'd gotten better) and yet when she needed him she'd taken the choice out of his hands.

Even if it was for the 'Greater Good' he wished he'd been able to do something for someone else for a change. He was sick of being the Kid. Sure some of the newbies were younger than he was… well, okay, Kara was younger than he was, but he still had this feeling that people were watching. Judging.

Waiting for him to screw up. (But that could have been that low self-esteem thing talking…)

So yeah. John wasn't the only one who was hurting. Maybe he hadn't loved her like John had, but that sure as hell didn't mean he didn't miss her.

He must have been giving J'onn such a headache.

There was a knock at his door and he turned with a blink. He was pretty sure most of the League had gone back to Earth after the Android incident, all in need of a serious vacation. Which meant it was either J'onn coming to tell him to think quietly or it was John.

Strangely enough he wasn't sure which one he hoped it was.

"Come in."

He toed the pile of what had once been posters and newspaper clippings with a sigh before looking at his hands. Paper cuts. Bad ones. Or at least as bad as paper cuts could be. Tiny pinpricks of blood were welling up on his palm and between his fingers.

The door slid open and in walked John. And it was like…John. Not Lantern. But John. In well-worn blue jeans that had one hole ripped at the knee while the bottoms were starting to fray away from being walked on, black work boots and a white t-shirt. And Christ, that stupid goatee thing.

Only it didn't look so bad now that John was out of the bright green spandex. Wally could actually kind of…appreciate it in this sort of setting.

Yep.

John's eyes scanned the room then he arched an eyebrow in that slow amused way of his. "Are you having a private moment? Because I can come back later."

"Uh." There was a long pause then he shook his head. "Nah. I'm redecorating."

"I noticed." John said dryly. "Mind if I ask why?"

"I don't think it suits me." Wally said. He found he was having a hard time not staring at John. Which was weird because it wasn't like he'd never seen the man out of uniform before. Well…not _out_ of uniform and _oh holy shit _his mind was a dirty horrible place and _yes_ he was thinking about John out of uniform and not in normal clothing and _no_ because this was a bad bad thing.

"Right." John just shook hid head in that 'why do I put up with you' sort of way he'd perfected in the time they'd known each other. "You owe me a drink."

"I do? Why?"

"We're still alive."

It took Wally a moment to realize what the hell John was talking about. And then he frowned, seeming to recall declining that little bet. And then an oh-so-helpful voice in his head declared him an idiot because no way was he about to refuse a chance to hang out with John.

They hadn't really done that since Hawkgirl had left, what with John's chronic moodiness and preference to long nights of something resembling teenage angst. Not that he'd ever tell John he was acting like a fifteen year old girl on some soap opera, because he wanted to keep all of his vital organs just where they were. But if he was less of a wuss and John was just slightly less frightening when he got upset he might have told him.

Maybe.

Probably not.

"Okay. I'll be out in a minute."

John nodded and turned for the door. Wally was about to start picking up all of the bits of paper on the floor (he wasn't quite as big a slob as rumored) when the older man's voice floated back to him. "And the new season of Amazing Race is starting tonight."

Wally's head snapped up and he was just able to gape at John's back before his door slid shut again. Figured. John was an Undercover Reality TV Lover. He should have seen it coming. It just wasn't natural to be able to watch a Fear Factor Marathon while eating the greasiest pizza in the galaxy and yet John had done it. Twice.

That had reality TV freak written all over it.

It was always the ones you didn't suspect.

------------

Thirty minutes later they were in Wally's rooms again. They had been forced to make their little beer run a short one because Diana and Dove were going to be off Tower duty in a few moments and neither wanted to hang around longer than they needed to.

Wally was kind of toying around with the idea of finding out if Dove was already involved with someone, since Hart really wasn't as big of a pain as he liked to pretend he was. The thing was he didn't know how one went about asking someone if they were interested in dating another guy without running the risk of offending them.

And since offending Dove would involve incurring the wrath of Hawk, he wasn't to avoid that if it was at all possible. Because, again, he liked all of his vital organs just where they were.

Which reminded him that he really needed to check on Imp and Robin. Last he'd heard the new Boy Wonder was getting dangerously close to strangling Bart and since nothing productive would come out of that it was probably about time to let them off of the hook. He could easily handle tower duty and his usual 'saving the world' activities at the same time.

Wally was actually pretty good at that multi-tasking thing.

"I think Clark is mad at you." John said mildly.

"Again? What'd I do this time?"

John smiled. "You made Kara start whining. Apparently she's upset that you're allowed to take time off and she can't even go on a date."

Wally rolled his eyes. "It's not like it was my idea to take time off. Diana forced me." Kind of. "Maybe we should set up a vacation program. Two weeks a year and the occasional weekend off."

"I'll be sure to run it by Bruce."

"Do I detect sarcasm in your voice?"

John glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Yes."

Wally stuck out his tongue and John snorted. Wally's lips quirked as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Now this was cool. Like before. Nothing was said for a few moments and Wally was willing to swear that John seemed…almost uncomfortable all of a sudden. He didn't say anything, just flipped through the channels absently.

The great thing about being on a space station above the earth was that you got thousands of channels from just about every country around the world. (And yet half the time there was still nothing on. It was amazing how that worked.) So Wally could very well stare a the TV for thirty minutes, just trying to find something to watch while pretending that he wasn't watching John watch him.

This was getting kind of weird.

"Wally." Dove poked his head through the open doorway. John muttered something under his breath that Wally didn't quite catch but, considering John's general dislike for most people, it was safe to assume it wasn't a flattering remark. Dove seemed to be thinking the same thing because he blinked at John twice before looking back at Wally.

"Yep?"

"Diana wanted me to tell you that if you need someone to be up here on Saturday she's free."

Saturday? What was he doing on Saturday? He knew that from time to time people liked to make plans for him (that usually involved boring ass baby-sitting assignments or watching people sign peace treaties or things like that) but he usually didn't know about them until the day of.

"Am I going somewhere?" He looked over at John. "You aren't sending me off again? Because I swear I'm not watching any more royals. That Prince Henry is a pain in the ass. And don't even get me started on those Hilton sisters. Or that Trump Girl."

It was like every time some rich brat got threatened he drew the short straw and had to go play bodyguard when, in reality, he'd rather gouge his eyes out then deal with them.

…Sometimes he was almost as anti-social as John was. And that was a very scary thought, because very few people could match John on the 'anti-people' scale. Not to mention the fact that most guys would give their…well, they'd give up a lot, to be in the positions he was sometime in.

But not him. He blamed John.

"Kara said something about you having a date." Don said. He stepped into the room and leaned against the wall. Don was a pretty cool guy in that even John had a hard time coming up with a reason not to like him.

"Date? I have a date?" That was news to him. "With who?"

"Some guy."

"From the park." John added.

Wally was silent for a moment, letting that process. And then he laughed. Loudly. He didn't mean to laugh at them, and he was willing to acknowledge it was nice of Diana to offer to let him take the day off as it were, but it was…well, funny.

Him going out with Hart that was. Because even if John didn't manage to drive him to distraction, he couldn't picture himself doing anything but hanging out with Hart. Because he was Hart and…well…he just was. They'd probably drive each other nuts within a few hours not to mention that he didn't think Hart had the patience required to put up with him.

Nor did he have the patience to put up with Hart.

He laughed so hard he fell into a coughing fit. He could feel John rolling his eyes at his back but ignored it in favor of trying to breath. Don just watched with a patient half smile. He must have learned it from Diana. Or maybe Diana learned it from him, what with Don being the resident poster boy for finding a better way to do…things.

"I'm sorry." He said once he'd managed to pick himself up off of the floor and stop laughing. "It's just…I'm not…not…" He was fighting back a snicker very hard.

"Interested in guys?" Don guessed.

"No. Only yes because I am." Neither John nor Don even blinked. Of course. "But I don't have a date. Or a guy. And if I did it wouldn't be that guy."

"I'll tell Diana you don't need her to cover then." Don flashed him a smile. "Later. See you John."

"Later." Wally said while John raised a hand. Don left and a sort of…awkward silence fell between them. Wally couldn't even pretend that John wasn't staring at him openly, because…well, he was. Staring. At him. Very intently.

And it was _really_ weirding him out.

John was looking at him like…like Batman would look at a really confusing piece of information or evidence. Like he was just itching to take it apart and find out all of its secrets and absorb all of the knowledge it had to offer, least he finally take that plunge over the deep end and loose his mind. Like whatever it was held the secrets to life and he desperately needed to have it to…breath.

Or at least that was what Wally interpreted Batman's 'pensive look' to mean. He supposed there was a chance he was wrong.

Not that that was the point.

And really maybe John didn't look quite that serious. More curious than 'desperate to know at all costs'. Which was good. Wally was pretty sure he didn't want anyone staring at him like that. There was way too much seriousness in that kind of look.

Curiosity was usually something easily dealt with. It could be worked out calmly between two mature individuals and (as long as hazardous chemicals and radiation weren't involved) a conclusion of sorts could be reached.

"What!?"

Okay so Wally didn't do calm well.

John's lips quirked slowly and Wally was pretty sure that if he wasn't so damn annoyed that he would have melted into a pile of really disgusting looking goo. Because damn. Taunt a guy much? His hormones couldn't take too many of those smiles.

"Something wrong Kid?"

Wally was pretty sure his eye twitched. "You mean beyond that fact you're staring at me like I'm some kind of science experiment?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing. Aside from that everything is fine." Wally was starting to cross that line between 'honest' and 'sarcastic'. Wally tried to remain on the 'honest (and slightly annoying) side' whereas John was purely 'sarcastic (and condescending, smug, and too damn sexy…err, sure of himself…)'

John's smile just got bigger. See, there was the smugness. Then those far-too-intense-for-Wally's-good eyes looked away from him. And no, Wally wasn't disappointed. Much.

"You're going to have a hell of a time convincing everyone you don't have a 'guy'. Certain people around here like to talk, as if things aren't interesting enough as is."

The shift in topic threw him for a minute. Then, with one last glare at John, he shrugged. "Not a big deal. The people who need to know will know it isn't true." The other man nodded his understanding. "Why, GL, you worried about my reputation?"

"Your reputation could only get better." John said dryly. Then he frowned. "I was worried. If anyone gives you any trouble-"

"You'll be the last person I tell." Wally said as he finally settled on a 'Friday the 13th' Marathon. "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but sometimes I can take care of myself."

Because he could. Even if he got a case of very 'girly' butterflies at the thought of John worrying about him, he was past old enough to take care of himself. Besides John 'defending his honor' would look kind of weird to…well, everyone. Including himself.

"I'm aware. I just want to know so I can be sure to give them all of the diplomatic duties you hate so much. Being in charge has its perks you know."

Wally laughed. The idea of John taking advantage of any kind of perks was laughable. "You know the way straight to my heart."

John smirked then settled back in his chair. He pointed at the TV. "You know this shit is going to rot your brain right?"

"That's the point man." He let out a long-suffering sigh. "You have so much to learn."

"Hmm." This time his smirk seemed to border on 'I know something that you don't know and but that you _really_ reallywant to know, but I won't be telling you because I'm a mean snarky bastard'.

John was weird.

------------------

J'onn looked away from the monitors for a moment and blinked. Perhaps it was time to take Batman's suggestion and invest in some of that aspirin. Especially if he was going to be in the tower with only John, Wally, and their thoughts to keep him company.

Really he wouldn't have thought John's mind worked on such a…level. It seemed more befitting of Wally really...

Since things seemed relatively peaceful, J'onn decided that that moment would be as good as any to reinforce his mental barriers.

-

-

-

Spin: Yes, John was rather jealous wasn't he? But I'm sure he's much happier now that he knows Wally isn't seeing anyone. In fact John has crafty plans going on that, sadly, I can't tell you about. **_Sighs_** I wish I could though. Really.

Ellen: Like I said, John is oddly anti-social here. I'm not sure why that is, but it is. He just seems to work well as an angry-get-the-hell-out-of-my-face type of guy. And I like Clark, thanks to Smallville. It's Superman that kind of grinds my nerves.

Less: Well much love back at you. I do so adore my reviewers.

Jade: That's actually a good thought, regarding the depth of John's feelings for Wally. It's pretty obvious (to us) that there is a lot going on there…but how much of that John gets is…highly up for debate.

Nameless: Well I'm glad you liked the change of pace. We might not see another one for a while because it was a bitch to write. I liked the end result but still…a total bitch. And Kara is another one of those characters I adore for an odd reason as of yet not known by myself, so I'm glad you found her amusing. John's POV was meant to be serious but between Kara and Wally it ended up kind of funny-serious. Which is the general tone of the story, I guess.


	7. Seven: But It's Just Me

You and I Got Something

Notes: Sooo…did you miss me? Sorry about the delay folks, my Yu-Gi-Oh muses had Wally, Don, and Dick hogtied in the closet in my brain. Which is kind of ironic when you think about it. Heh…

Anyway, I need to explain something before we get into this chapter. I was watching an episode of Static Shock (I loved the comic, hate the show with a fiery passion but I was bored…) and there was an ep where Sinestro took John's lantern and image and tried to destroy his reputation. Being the sadist I am I decided to torture Wally.

Sadly this means this story, which was going to end in three/four chapters…well it's going to be longer than I thought. Not a lot longer, but longer. Plus now there is a sequel! Which will hopefully pop up after I post the sequel(s) to my other story …yeah, I know, I have time management problems.

New Favorite quote: "Robots! I love smashing robots!" _Wally._ I felt so…justified.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Chapter Seven

But It's Only Me

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Wally rubbed at his eyes sleepily as he shuffled through the tower. He was suddenly very grateful for the automatic doors the tower had because it was way too damn early for him to hope to function correctly. There was a 50/50 chance that things like opening doors were beyond him at the moment.

"Wally-" Oh hey, look, it was John. Whatever else he may have said was lost on Wally as his shoulder slammed into a door and a sharp jab of pain ran down his arm. Son of a bitch. Well. It was now officially way to fucking early for him to be awake.

He couldn't believe he'd just walked into a door. In front of John no less. So humiliating.

A hand grabbed his arm lightly and he was pulled away from the evil wall. He glanced over to see John kind of smirking at him in that strange way of his and all thoughts of denting the wall vanished. He was such a dork. John more or less led him through the maze that the tower had become to Wally's sleep deprived state and into the break room.

Not that Wally couldn't do it on his own. It was a matter of damage control. In that letting someone else control his progress resulted in less damage.

He was sitting at the table with a cup of steaming coffee in front of him before he really realized what was going on. He blinked at the cup then picked it up, heat from the cup flowing to his fingers.

John slunk into the seat across from him and picked up the book he must have been reading. Wally watched the other man what he hoped was discreetly but with his luck it probably wasn't. John seemed to be really intent on his book but Wally knew better than to assume that preoccupied meant unaware. Because it didn't. John was always aware of his surroundings. That was just…part of what being John was all about. He took a sip of his coffee, slightly surprised to find John had dumped in the ridiculous amount of coffee Wally liked, and let the warmth seep into him.

This was the part of tower duty he really and truly hated. Waking up a five AM to watch hours upon hours upon hours of news, picking up on every disaster and event so they could give out jobs. He had learned after the first time that having an alternate source of amusement was a good idea unless you wanted to risk falling into a coma.

Maybe he could use this time to catch up on his studying for school. He kept saying he was going to do it and then…well, not going it. Juggling school and 'saving the world' had gotten easier with the extended League, but it was still difficult.

And he still didn't have time for an actual job. He was wandering aimlessly through college; most people were done around 24 and he hadn't even started until he was 21...and, oh yeah, he still didn't know what the hell he wanted to do.

The whole 'hero' thing had kind of fucked up any chance a person had at leading even a semi-normal life and, in his case, but him years behind everyone else.

Sometimes he wondered if should regret not giving it up after Barry had died. He hadn't even really mourned the man, he'd just taken up the task of being Flash, because it's what he had to do and he'd done it without question. He'd put college on hold along with most of his life and just…done what he thought he'd had to do. Even Dick had taken time away from the costume, or at least more time away than Wally ever had, and yet Dick was the workaholic.

And he was the slacker, comic relief guy who was barely treated like a teenage sidekick half of the time, in spite of being one of the original seven. And it wasn't like he was saying he was bitter or angry about it (Though to be honest he was) he was just wondering what a guy had to do to be taken seriously? Did he need to develop another personality or become a recluse who didn't even own a TV or be shunned by his 'people'?

Hell, hadn't he already done half of those things? He didn't have any real 'non-powers having' friends or people close to him, and there were times when the lines between Wally and Flash could blur just a bit. Why was it that he could work this hard and do this much and still be a joke?

A hot splash on his hand was the thing that alerted him to the fact he wasn't exactly sitting still anymore. He dropped the cup with a cry, cursing softly as he watched it fall almost in slow motion. (Super speed effected time sometimes and wasn't that just slightly terrifying?) He cradled his burned hand for less than a second and then started to reach for the cup when a green light surrounded it. It hovered its way over to the sink where it fell with a small thump and splash.

"Erhm. Thanks man." He rubbed his hand again, sighing. He needed to go back to bed and try to start the day over; sans running into walls and getting angry and burning himself like a moron.

"Not a problem." John was on his feet and again his hand was on Wally's arm. It was kind of strange that they'd probably touched more in the past ten minutes then in the past two weeks. His hand was placed under a stream of chilly water and some of the pain was chased away.

He glanced up at John from the corner of his eye and couldn't help but squirm under the sheer amount of attention the older man was paying to his burn. He was not going to swoon or blush or anything equally as embarrassing. He wasn't. Really. Honest.

Shit.

He was blushing.

He had to learn to control that. He was constantly being reduced to the level of a kid with their first crush. It didn't make sense.

"So Kid, what's eating you?"

John's fingers left him and Wally was momentarily struck by the sense of…loss that brought on. He'd become used to John's slightly calloused, but warm, fingers on his skin even if they'd one been touching a few moments.

Then, registering the question, shrugged and shuffled back to the table. "Nothing. Just tired. You know I hate being up this early."

John arched an eyebrow as if to say he knew Wally was lying through his teeth. And hell, maybe he did know. Wally laid his head on the table and tried to pretend he didn't care that John knew he was lying, even though he did kind of care. Not enough to tell the truth, but still.

"You'll be used to it by the end of the week." John said finally.

"Joy." He muttered. "There is something unnatural about you being awake, making coffee, stopping potentially dangerous spills and reading…what are you reading? Does that say '_World Takeover for Dummies'_? By Assorted Criminal Masterminds?"

"Yeah. It's pretty good." John said as if reading a book on how to conquer the world written by a bunch of psychos they'd put in a jail various times was the most normal thing in the world. Who knew, maybe it was perfectly normal and Wally had once again missed that boat.

"Right. GL-"

"It's important to know your enemies Wally. That way you can anticipate and counteract their next movement or plan without having to spend hours in a lab or beating up informants."

Wally blinked. "I like beating up informants." It was a great stress reliever and he found no one ever told him to stop it or knock it off.

"…I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, okay?"

"Uh. Okay."

"Because if I heard that I'll have to tell Clark and maybe Bruce and you probably won't be allowed into the field until they find someone dumb enough to try and figure out what makes you have such violent tendencies." John's lips quirked almost amusedly.

"Ah. Carry on then."

John snorted and reopened his book, spine creasing slightly. "Besides I think half of the criminal community has been following this book word for word lately. There's even a chapter about evil electronics."

That caught Wally's interest. He picked his head up instantly and craned his neck as if that would help him see the aforementioned chapter. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

"Can I borrow that later?"

"I already photocopied the chapter. It's in the monitor room." He tried not to feel all warm and tingly because John knew him that well. Though, really, John was being suspiciously intuitive this morning. Knowing that he was going to be useless and keeping him from cracking his skull open, getting the coffee sweet enough without having un-dissolved sugar resting on the bottom, and now the book thing.

Weird.

But nice.

"Thanks."

John nodded almost distractedly before standing up. "Not a problem. We should get started so J'onn can go mediate or whatever it is he does when he isn't around us."

"Pray for the strength to deal with us?"

"No, that's what **I** do when **you** aren't around."

Wally gasped in mock offense. "That wounds me John, really. Deep inside, it hurts. I'm crying silent tears right now. You should be ashamed."

"And deep inside I am ashamed."

"Liar."

"Yeah."

-

They'd been at the monitor thing for a few hours, sent the others to divert a few little natural disasters, hostage situations, and rebel coups, and Wally was officially bored out of his skull. It was bound to happen of course, as he'd been unfortunate enough to leave his English book god only knew where and his plan to study had been shot to hell.

So he decided to fall back on one of his favorite pastimes.

Annoying the shit out of John.

"Is it just me or was J'onn really eager to get away from you earlier?" That much was actually true. The Martian had barely spoken a word to John and had very pointedly not gotten too close or looked the man in the eye before all but fleeing the room when they'd relieved him of duty for the day.

"It was just you."

"Really? Are you sure you haven't been having any thoughts that would send him running for the hills like that."

John paused, eyes darting up from his book for a moment. Then his brow furrowed and Wally couldn't help but be a little startled at the thoughtful expression. Why did John even have to think about that? He wasn't supposed to think, he was supposed to make some witty but crushing remark so that Wally could continue his pointless questioning in order to break up the monotony of watching the stupid monitors.

That was just how things worked. John couldn't go messing with the flow of things.

Then John smirked. "Unlike you Wally, my mind couldn't be mistaken for a sewer."

That was better. "You trying to imply something GL?"

"No." John was back to his book now. "I was saying that your mind is so dark and twisted it's a wonder you haven't run off and joined one of the nuts who wrote this book."

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

John nodded almost sagely though he didn't look back up. "I know that."

"You do?"

"Of course. You aren't nearly that shallow."

"I'm not? Are you sure? I could actually use the self-esteem boost every now and then." Not that that he was admitting to having low self-esteem to John.

"Yes. The way to your heart is sugar, gore, and violence."

"…fair enough." Wally had to admit he had a point. Then he smiled mischievously. "Is that why you agreed to watch that horror movie marathon with me?"

Wally had been somewhere near elated to find out that the marathon they'd started watching the night before was going on all week long. It had taken a little bit of work to get John to agree to watch it with him when they let J'onn take over the nightshift.

But not as much work as it would have normally taken him.

He expected John to roll his eyes and say something about trying to avoid Wally's whining or taking pity on him since he had no friends or some other fantastically scathing burn that Wally would laugh off before tormenting his friend some more.

Because that was how the game worked.

John's smirk was enough to make Wally forget how to breathe. "Yes."

Why did John insist on changing the rules?

-

I promise review responses next chapter. I just wanted to get this out.


	8. Eight: Out of the Doubt that Fills my

You and I Got Something

Notes: I meant to say this last time but oh well: I hope you all have (had) a nice Valentine's Day. I have a lot of free time this week and it's all dedicated to you guys, hence the timely update.

That aside I've got the chapters all plotted out and there are going to be twelve chapters, not counting the prelude. Which I may delete anyway… Cause with the sequel and stuff it may not fit anymore.

And, finally, I kind of like this chapter. Having Wally sitting in his room brooding while re-telling what went on was really amusing for me. Maybe because I'm the type of guy who owns Mystery Science Theater on DVD. (Which is to say: I'm a huge geek. It's sad but true.)

Means Flashback.

Means Present Time.

-

Chapter Eight

Out of the Doubt that Fills my Mind

-

Wally fell onto his bed and tried to quiet his heart, which was thudding in his chest so loudly it was just about the only thing he could hear. He sat down, pulling open the bag of Neon Worms he'd grabbed from the couch.

If he'd been a few years younger and a bit less optimistic he supposed this would be the part where he listened to angst-ridden rock music and cut himself while writing terribly heart twisting and disturbing poetry that would make people realize just how depressed and deep he really was. (1)

He wrinkled his nose at the thought.

Teenagers were so weird these days. He couldn't believe he'd actually thought that (he wasn't getting that old was he?) but it was true. Whatever happened to simple self-pity while eating things ridiculously high in sugar?

Honestly.

Unconsciously proving his point he popped a worm into his mouth and chewed the slightly sour treat slowly. Yep, he was feeling better already.

Why was Wally, constantly cheerful even when he was in a foul mood because being angry only made him more bright and bouncy than normal (it was being confused that got him) wallowing in self-pity this time you wonder?

Well it was simple.

He was confused. See? Confusion. Did him in every time.

And, in a reoccurring theme from the past few weeks, it was John's fault. Because his life just wasn't complete otherwise.

Yes, that was sarcasm. He'd crossed that line.

"…fair enough." Wally had to admit he had a point. Then he smiled mischievously. "Is that why you agreed to watch that horror movie marathon with me?"

"Yes."

Wally frowned at the wall of his bedroom while fingering the bandage on his temple. Once again he'd managed to get injured and, once again, it was John's fault. All these blows to the head couldn't be good for him. People got brain damage from less.

Then again being what he was probably made him less prone to silly things like blunt force trauma and skull cracking and internal bleeding! Hah, he laughed in the face of such trivial things. Or else he would have been in trouble long before now.

Another worm eased the self-deprecating edge his thoughts had taken on.

Wally blinked, wondering if it was possible to go pale and blush at the same time. Had John just said 'yes'? Yes, as if it was the simplest thing in the world and he hadn't just succeeded in throwing Wally's off its axis? Had he even heard the question right? Had Wally fallen into another alternate universe? Or was he just finally feeling the effects of being smacked with shrapnel all the time? Though, really, that hadn't happened for a very long time.

"Kid?" A hand waved in front of his face. "Did I break you? Do I need to call J'onn to take a look in that head of yours? Because I don't think I have anything on hand to bribe him with…"

Wally jumped back, realizing that John had suddenly gotten a lot closer to him. Unfortunately jumping around in a rolling chair was a bad idea. The chair moved and he went down, managing to smack his head on the control panel along the way.

And then his head hit the floor with a dull crack and he winced slightly. That undoubtedly could have gone a little more gracefully. Damn.

"Ow." He was flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling. Fantastic! More head trauma that wouldn't really amount to trauma because he was 'special'.

Too bad that wouldn't stop the headache that he felt coming on.

Yep. He'd manage to end on his ass once again, bleeding from a cut on his head, in front of John. That was the second time this month, a new record for him. He'd settled on being embarrassed right about then, as opposed to panicked and mortified. John had said 'yes' and all of Wally's higher brain function had taken a vacation.

He'd been in fight or flight mode and since he was pretty sure John could kick his ass one on one he'd tried to get away. Obviously it hadn't worked so well. Not that he could have really gone anywhere anyway.

Panic made people do stupid things.

And why had he been panicked in the first place? After all the time he spent watching John, wondering why his life sucked so much that he'd fallen for one of the few people he truly considered a friend, the getting wasted and bothering all the rest of his friends, the figuring out that he was less than straight and maybe had some issues to work out…

Then the moment John shows a tiny glimmer of something resembling interest he tired to run away and ended up smacking his head off of the control panel. He was just lucky he hadn't accidentally set off the laser and blown something up.

He'd blown up his VCR once that way. True, the Watch Tower was a bit more complex then your standard VCR, but with electronics one could never be sure.

"You're an idiot." John said after a long moment of silence. The other man was on his feet and hovering over him, before reaching down and hauling him up. Gee, wasn't this more than a little familiar, _some traitorous and snarky voice that kind of sounded like Dick muttered in the back of his mind. _

He shook his head. Had he hit himself that hard?

The thought drifted away when John prodded his temple carefully before rolling his eyes. "I'm impressed Wally, you've somehow managed to land in the same place as the last time. Hopefully you've managed to avoid the concussion this time."

"'M not an idiot." Wally muttered sullenly.

"Right." John's tone was amused. Once again Wally was stricken by how very green his eyes were and he couldn't help but swallow nervously. Only this time John's eyebrow arched in a way that let him know that it had been noticed. He pulled away and looked at his feet.

"I…um…I…"

"Need to sit down so I can put something on that?" John said with a mild smirk. "I was thinking the same exact thing, I'm glad we're in agreement. Things go so much smoother when I don't have to make you do them under the threat of pain. Sit down and don't move." His voice lost all traces of amusement and went into 'do what I say because I can kill you with my bare hands' mode.

More than a little intimidating.

He should have run. He could have been in the transport room, on the pad, and on his way home before John even blinked. He had that ability.

Hell, that was his specialty.

He sat.

Gee, wasn't this more than a little familiar, 

Why had he done it? Because he was an idiot. Because he was curious. Because he was kind of dizzy.

Mostly dizzy.

Besides, it wasn't like John could possibly be serious. He was…John. John.

He was dark and mysterious and confident and always right and smug and mocking and so damn _cool_ and a million other things that meant he couldn't possibly be interested in Wally, because Wally wasn't any of those things no matter how many times he said he was.

And it wasn't like he was totally over compensating by being loud and boastful, he was just trying to keep everyone from realizing that beyond being fast and incredibly witty he didn't really have any actual talents. He wasn't smart, he just had a super fast brain; he wasn't strong, he was just fast enough to compensate for it, he had no cool gadgets or bulletproof wrist things or power ring or magical mace…

He was just…Wally.

And he'd never felt more like 'Just Wally' then when he was convincing himself that he wasn't worth John's time and that he was insane for thinking that was interest he saw simmering in John's eyes. Because he was just Wally.

A few moments later found John's hand on his chain, angling his head to the side so he could clean out the cut and put a bandage on it. This was even worse than the thing on the ship because it was taking a lot longer, that dumb disinfectant stuff burned (Oh, they could build a laser that could destroy a major city but damn if they would get something that didn't hurt to clean out the scrapes they frequently had.) and every time he moved or blinked or breathed there was just…

Just John.

Only John was never just John.

…He had ceased to make any sort of sense.

He was even dizzier then before but he doubted it had anything to do with the little tumble he'd taken and more to do with this slow and terrible torture.

Who had he pissed off in a past life to deserve this?

"Done." John's voice cut through the fog that had descended upon his mind. He blinked at the older man owlishly, drawing a perplexed look from the other. "Are you okay? Your pupils are kind of…"

He trailed off while leaning into him a bit closer.

It was funny how Wally quite literally felt his mind snap. He wondered, idly, if all people felt themselves lose their minds when they…lost their minds.

He'd have to remember to ask Dick about that later, since he was the only insane person Wally knew who'd be willing to answer such a question. Though he'd probably roll his eyes and tell Wally what a moron he was while doing it.

That was part of Dick's charm. Kind but annoying.

He groaned and pulled a pillow over his head. Idiot. He, Wally West, was an idiot. He would never ever deny it again, because he was in fact an idiot.

He wasn't sure what he expected when grabbed the hem of John's t-shirt and tugged him down to kiss him. John made a noise that may have been a laugh and his hand slide down his neck to rest on his shoulder.

…yes. He kissed him. It was bound to happen. He had a fragile grasp on sanity as it was, how could no one have seen this coming? He should have seen it coming.

He should have seen it coming and he should have smacked his head against the panel a few more times in hopes of knocking himself out. Or…maybe not.

Because John kissed him back.

It wasn't exactly cheesy trash novel quality but Wally found that he could live with that. John's lips had been a little dry and his stubble (Which was now officially stupid again, no matter how sexy it looked from time to time) had scratched over his skin and his hand had been large and warm and _there_ on his shoulder the entire time. And it wasn't like he'd never kissed anyone before but it still had that awkward first kiss quality and…yeah.

He could live with that too.

It had been a little weird though. For about half a second he'd be considering that whole gay thing. Maybe he'd been mistaken?

He broke off with a small gasp. Wow, when had he stopped breathing? John was blinking at him, eyes brighter than before and now he was pretty damn sure he had something resembling x-ray vision because damn wasn't that gaze the most intense one he'd ever been on the receiving end of.

He couldn't help but squirm under it again and look at a point over John's shoulder with some amazing intensity of his own.

"You aren't really good at the subtle thing once I stopped to notice." John's voice had a distinctly husky note to it and Wally swallowed again. His throat was very dry all of a sudden. So was his mouth though.

"I have to admit this clears up why everyone keeps saying you're gay."

Wally's gaze snapped over to John. "Who says that?" Not that it wasn't true but Wally didn't like the idea of people talking about him. Didn't they have better things to do with their time?

John chuckled and the hand on his shoulder squeezed lightly. "Don't worry about it. It's not important."

"Easy for you to say. People don't talk about you."

"Because I'm scarier than you are." He was smirking again. "Don't worry. They'll stop talking soon."

"Why's that?"

"Weren't you listening? I'm scary." Wally started to ask what the hell that had to do with anything when those lips were on his again and it was a little less weird than the first one. Which was good. He could stop reconsidering his sexuality yet again.

That was getting to be a pain in the ass really.

Wally chuckled softly to himself while biting one of the worms in half. It kind of figured that during what should have been a complete awkward moment John had simply bypassed it and filled it with his usual affectionate insults.

Something familiar that stopped Wally's hyperactive mind from running off with his common sense and how John had known to distract him from freaking out at that moment was beyond him. Maybe he just knew him that well.

There was a shiver worthy thought.

Wally's mind was falling back into that pleasant fuzzy haze when he heard the door slide open. He pulled back and turned, looking with wide eyes at J'onn who kept his face as impassive as ever. John straightened up, hand sliding away and Wally just caught the dirty look he shot the alien from the corner of his eyes.

To his credit J'onn seemed to ignore it. "While I am loath to interrupt you two I wanted to let you know I was going to earth. It seems Superman requires my aid."

"A note would have been fine." John deadpanned. Then shrugged and sat back in his chair. "That's fine. We've got everything under control."

Wally considered that for a whole second. Under control?

Nope. He was so not feeling this 'control' that John was speaking about. In fact he was feeling a bit…out of control.

"I think I remember where I left my English book."

And then he'd left, running like the hounds of hell were behind him. Sometimes Wally was a huge coward.

Bag of worms now empty Wally would like to think he was thinking clearly now and could analyze the situation with the seriousness that it deserved.

He had, in a moment of John induced insanity, kissed the object causing his increasing madness and or obsession. And then John had kissed him, after being his usual asshole self. And then he'd run away like a total wuss.

Hmm…there was clearly something wrong with this-

He blinked as his phone rang. Someone was calling? To speak to him? On the phone?

Huh.

He stood up and, focusing on the ring, pounced on a pile of clothes and began throwing them aside in an attempt to reach the phone. He found it and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Wally, it's Dick."

"Yes it is." Wally flopped down onto the floor. "What can I do for you?"

"Nothing. I was just calling to check up on you.

He smiled wryly. "So you really do love me!"

"…no. But good guess." He could almost hear Dick's half smile. "Seriously though, everything okay? I mean, with you showing up and then not bothering to so much as give me a follow up 'by the way I haven't killed myself' call? That's just rude."

"I assumed you were busy with your guy. Cute by the way."

"I thought so. So?"

"Well I could use a second opinion."

"Shoot."

Wally quickly recounted the day, from the beginning (minus running into the door because just admitting to falling on his ass was bad enough.) When he was done Dick had gone very quiet. Finally the silence got to him.

"Well!"

"Gimmie a minute Wal, my attention is torn between 'my guy' just out of the shower and your raging idiocy." Wally heard a quiet laugh that wasn't Dick because it sounded entirely too nice to be his friend. "Okay, I'm focused again. So. You're an idiot. Go back to the Tower, explain to Lantern that you are an idiot, apologize for being an idiot, and then work on being less of an idiot."

Wally cursed his earlier promise to not argue being an idiot anymore because he was really tired of that word already. Sadly Dick wasn't quite done.

"I know your self-esteem is dangerously low but how exactly did you get the urge to run away and hide in your apartment from someone actually being crazy enough to like you?"

"It's not dangerously low."

Dick snorted. "Sure."

"I'm hanging up now."

"'Bout time."

0-0-0

Wally ran away at his normal speed, as in before anyone could blink, and so missed the death glare John laid on the Martian. "Your timing could use work."

"You deserved it."

"I deserved it?" It was funny how he'd never though J'onn was the type to get vindictive over a few stray thoughts. "I didn't tell you to read my mind you know. And you know it's only going to get worse. There is something seriously wrong with him. He thinks too much. Just imagine the headache that's going to result from this."

And wasn't that ironic? Wally over thinking…yet he seemed to be doing it a lot of the time. If he'd just said something (or someone had been kind enough to point out how bad Wally was at hiding his feelings…) a lot of this could have been avoided.

For the life of him he couldn't understand why Wally would choose this to keep quiet about. Did John come off as harsh or the type of person you couldn't talk to? Sure, some of the younger and newer League members cowered in front of him like he was Bruce or something, but Wally should have known better after all this time.

Worse come to worse he wouldn't have felt the same and he would have told Wally that outright. Then, true to form, he could have taunted the younger man and tried to set him up with someone else.

It wasn't like John wasn't pretty damn open minded.

He'd been married to a non-human after all and then there was Shayera. Who had wings. Another male, even one as strange and unpredictable as Wally tended to be at the best of times, kind of paled in comparison to all of that. Wally's stupidity was, quite frankly, outstanding when it came to matters like this.

John would be sure to tell him so later.

"You seem to say that a lot." J'onn observed. "I can't seem to understand why, if you think Wally is so much trouble and brings so many problems, you would take the time to pursue him."

John blinked slowly as a half dozen responses drifted through his mind, ranging from the cryptic (I have no idea) to the honest (I'm not exactly all there either) to slightly perverse (His dirty mind intrigues me). Finally he just shrugged and sat back in his chair.

"Maybe it's because of all of that. Never really thought about it." And he wasn't going to start now. It just wasn't his kind of thing. He didn't like to overanalyze the few simple things he was allowed to have in his life. (He could see Wally scowling at being referred to as simple) He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair slowly. "So when he ran out of here-"

"He is very confused, though he isn't sure why he's confused. A bit of disbelief." John nodded while rolling his eyes. Of course. Idiot. "Next time I will leave a note."

"Have you ever considered the fact that you may be passive-aggressive?"

"Yes." With that J'onn swept out of the room, leaving John to smile at the doorway ruefully. Then, something blinking in the corner of one of the screens caught his eye.

A distress signal from around the asteroid belt. …fuck. He'd been hoping he couldn't have to do anything except deal with Wally's crazy ass today. Both of the Javelins were out and he wasn't even going to screw around with Diana's invisible jet. He didn't trust something he couldn't see while flying in space.

It just didn't sit well with him and he didn't want to risk his insides suddenly becoming is outsides when he exploded or whatever it was that happened to humans when they were in space without air. (He felt as if he should know what happened with all the time he spent in space.)

He was going to have to do this the hard way.

-

-

-

1. We can blame my idiot boyfriend for that comment. He was hovering over my shoulder and said, in this annoying snarky tone, 'Is this the part where he starts cutting himself and writes dark poetry?'. To which I choked on my tea and said '…Wally? Dark poetry and cutting? Did you drink that milk your roommate left in the 'frig?' …this could, possibly, only be funny to us though. We're weird. Moving on:

Candylyn: Yeah, you aren't allowed to commenting on my slacking until you stop slacking off! …so…stop slacking off. Please? Wally's not dense, he's just stupid. According to Dick and John anyway.

Saturn: LOL. Reducing people to fangirl squeeing…wow. I feel so proud of myself. :) I'm glad you enjoyed it so much.

Nameless: I'm hoping to be done before April, actually. Anything longer than that and I've just drifted into lazy slacker land and need to be smacked. Not so much UST as…something…else. I promise the next story will be dripping with the unresolved sexual tension. This one not so much. And I agree, Wally's priorities are a lot better than some people's. And this chapter was a lot longer, so no worries.

Deani: I put a little more J'onn in (He wasn't in this chapter originally but you asked so nicely and J'onn is so much fun to write that I couldn't resist. And it fit okay.) Yeah, John figured out that Wally is thinking too damn hard and decided to step in, in his own 'driving Wally nuts' fashion. I think he likes watching Wally spazz out. And I'm glad you like my Flash so much. He's just so…quirky and angst-happy but perky and it's…yeah.

Ellen: Yes, Wally was oddly cute last chapter. I had this image of sleep-rumpled Wally, hair pointing in a hundred directions stumbling around pathetically and I had to share… I love writing John/Wally dialogue. It's just so much fun. I need friends I can talk to like that.

Hols: As you wish.

Mechante: No, John isn't evil yet. Though that would have been a really wicked twist if I hadn't already written the end of this chapter when I got your review. John finally gets Wally to snap out of it only for it not to be John. Wow. That'd be so mean of me… Not to worry though. I'm going to be plenty mean anyway. And no Blair 'on camera' but he was there. In the shower. What was he doing there? Who knows… lol. I actually like the name Dick, once you get past the giggling, though I don't really get Dick from Richard either. But Nightwing just isn't a Richard, you know? And I love long reviews; they make me all warm and fuzzy.

So. The Countdown begins: Four Chapters and Counting. Kind of sad isn't it?


	9. Nine: Because Of You I Am

You and I Got Something

Review Responses: (I'm doing this at the beginning for all of my stories this week. You know, change of pace.)

Hikari: …o-O … _Dies Laughing _Ahem. I swear I choked on my Oreos when I read that. I'm still laughing…just…god. Oh, by the way the mini-skit at the end is your fault. Yes. Totally your fault. …maybe the Oreos didn't help.

Deani: Me and you both… There is just something so…something (yeah, I'm great with the describing words…) about this paring. Erhm. Yeah. Don't worry, I won't let anyone die of John/Wally depravation. That'd be mean. I have…stuff. And I'd so read Bruce/J'onn and John/Wally story. Maybe because there is something wrong with me as well…eh.

Mechante: Pshaw. What else would I use it for? Homework? Studying? College applications? An apartment search? Surely you jest. Yeah, J'onn was evil but that's okay. He's allowed to be a little sadistic after all of this.

Candy: I thought Wally panicking and running off was very…Wally as well. (hence writing it) I think John could do an over-dramatic cliché love confession and Wally would still run off. …maybe because that's be scary…uh. Anyway. Give me for fic! _Shakes fist_ …yes. Ahem. Double Date? Are you nuts? The carnage…? Yeah, sure, what the hell. Remind me to make a note of that.

Nameless: You are right of course. Remember everything is tainted by Wally's POV though and well…Wally. And J'onn does rule. Muchly. And yes, in a flashback! I was afraid of awkwardness in the writing and the flashback made it easy. I'll be nicer next time. Maybe. Heh.

Cherre Freak: I love converting people to new fandoms and pairings! Makes me warm and tingly inside… though that could be the Oreos too. You never know.

Kirke: J'onn had us all fooled I tell you. And that's my MO you know, hitting you when you least expect it then running off cackling into the night. Or, once again, you know…the Oreos.

Disclaimer: No Wallys were actually hurt in the making of this chapter. That's next chapter! No, I kid…but only because John frightens me. John wasn't hurt because he read the script, told me to kiss his ass and made me hire a stunt double. Actors. Sinestro wasn't hurt but only because John hasn't caught him yet.

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Chapter Nine

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* * *

John wasn't the hardest guy in the world to track down, despite what some people may have thought. He wasn't on the tower, which was a bit of a surprise to Wally, which meant one of three things: He had left to handle something, he was in Coast City, or he was in Detroit. He tended to be really predictable.

Hence being back at the tower and setting the computer to the task of finding the wayward Lantern. Logically he could just sit back and wait for John to come to him but since he presently had the confidence for this whole confrontation thing he had better get it over with now before he had another self-esteem relapse and had to call Dick to yell at him again.

Yep. He was pathetic.

The computer beeped, signaling it had locked onto John's energy pattern. Wally didn't exactly didn't understand the whole 'everyone in the entire universe emits a subtly different energy pattern, based on a bazillion levels of light and sound frequency' but if it worked who was he to disagree.

It was coming from space and was actually headed back towards Earth's general…orbit. Figuring John was done doing whatever he was doing he commanded the computer to do that wonderful atom scrambling and rearranging thing it did to bring them to and from places.

He took a deep breath to steady himself. He could do this. He would not run off and hide somewhere.

Why was it that evil aliens, electronics, and the occasional evil billionaire were nothing to him but he couldn't face a guy he considered one of his closest friends? Emotions were so stupid. He resisted the urge to smack his head against the nearest hard surface and instead settled for going down to the control pad to talk to John.

Because he could do this.

See, him, doing this.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck.

John was just stepping off the pad, a faintly bewildered look on his face. Wally was a little bit to preoccupied to notice that though and instead barreled into what he had to say with his usual tact and grace.

As in none.

"Look, John, I'm sorry I ran way like a wuss before with the thing but you caught be off guard and I'm not exactly good at that whole expressing emotions thing, not that really has anything to do with that, and I think maybe I'm a little bit screwed up in areas like that but you probably know that already since you're always telling me I have serious issues and maybe I should get those worked on or something but that's not really the point, you know? I think maybe you just scared me a little and I know that's a really pussy thing to say and I'm just sorry about it and I've thought about it and stuff and I wouldn't wholly object to you kissing me again."

Of course all of this was said in one breathe in under ten seconds, with no pausing and if it were written out it would probably be one long word. Then he breathed, preparing himself for the next rush.

John just blinked.

"I've had this completely absurd crush on your for who knows how long and I figure that if you actually you know feel something for me that I should at least warn you how utterly pathetic and obsessive I am so you aren't shocked a year or month or week down the line, or tomorrow with my luck which is really bad and I should warn you of that too. Getting involved with me is a major health risk and I personally wouldn't advise it because I know our insurance coverage sucks and everything like that and that's probably part of the reason I went all MIA on you. And then I don't even know if you want to be involved with me or if you're just tired of me mooning over you and decided to indulge me or whatever, though I don't think that's it because that's just abnormally cruel and you may be mean on occasion, though never to me and I really appreciate that, but you never seemed cruel and if I'm freaking you out I'm sorry."

Another pause, punctuated by more blinking from John. Which was fine, because Wally was just about done.

"And if you just want to be friends that's fine with me because you're one of my best friends and I'd hate to fuck that up and I know that's all cliché and trite and shit you hear on bad daytime TV but it's actually kind of true, not that I watch bad day time TV or anything like that, though if I did it'd be justified because TV really sucks in the afternoon unless its Cartoon Network but umm…" He stopped and fidgeted around for a moment, pulling on the bottom of his shirt. He'd suddenly run out steam and had nothing left to actually say.

Not that he'd exactly said a lot anyway. He was such a dork. He'd proven it just now. He'd had a plan, honestly he had, and he had it all plotted out in his head and none of it had involved super fast Wally babble or John staring at him like he'd lost his mind though he probably should have expected that since everything seemed to go that way when he tired to make confessions or important speeches and holy Christ he was even thinking in Wally babble now.

Not that he didn't usually do that, but normally he could force his thoughts to remain mildly linear and let the non…linear ones fade to the background until he was ready to ponder it out later.

Oh god. What did he have to do to make it stop?

"Shit. John I'm sorry. I had…you know, things. In my head. Worked out and I'm just so confused and nervous that I can't seem to stop myself from just blurting things out and look I'm doing it again and I wish I could figure out how to make myself stop it before I make an even bigger ass of myself-"

"What?" Finally John spoke and his entire train of thought/speech derailed dangerously. Literally. There were little thought people in his head screaming horribly as the train went off the edge of a bridge and plunged to the rocks below where all of their little thought bodies would be dashed against the jagged services.

And. Yes. Anyway.

"I'm sorry I ran away when you kissed me. You just freaked me out."

Another blink then a slight curving of the lips that was almost sinister and very much un-John like but kissing him was also un-John like so who was Wally to judge.

"I see."

"Really? Because I don't think I even understood half of what I said. I think I went from Wally-speak to Bart-speak and that's just a whole new level of scar-"

And rather abruptly he was not speaking because there were lips and hands and _Jesus Fucking Christ _and…yes. A bunch of stupid clichés ran through Wally's mind at that moment, the sort that you find in trashy supermarket novels and bad internet porn and places like that and he would have laughed and not for the situation because how come none of his kisses were ever like that?

Maybe because he wasn't some buxom beauty and there was something really different about this.

A bunch of things now that he thought about it.

His brain decided to take that moment to analyze and he would have rolled his eyes if he weren't fairly used to being so damn scatterbrained.

A) This was a lot…harsher than before. But hey, if he'd been babbling at himself he'd go to great lengths to make himself shut up as well. B) No stubble. Had John shaved? …Doubtful but possible.

C) His eyes weren't right.

…Eyes? Green and glowy but…not the right sort. And he would know, considering how often he waxed semi-philosophically about John's eyes and their possible X-ray and Wally melting properties.

Wally had another break through at that point and decided to share it by bringing his fist solidly into the jaw of the John impersonator. They stumbled back and, almost like some kind of hologram, the face of John flickered and then vanished.

"Oh, nasty!" He spit and wiped the back of his hand across his lips. Eww much?

He was going to kill Sinestro. Yes. Kill. Slowly and horribly.

And where the fuck was John anyway?

"Sorry to disappoint." Sinestro was rubbing his jaw. Wally wished he had used that whole speed thing in that punch. He wasn't exactly Superman but being smacked at high speeds always hurt. Oh well. Hindsight and all of that.

He glared. Yes. Kicking Sinestro's ass. And then seeing if he could find a tape of that terrible little confession and showing it to John so he didn't have to do it again.

Sinestro was grinning now. Wally thought it looked funny considering his lip was bleeding but he had a weird sense of humor.

"Nothing personal by the way…Flash isn't it? The high speed talking gave it away." Note to self: Do not give away identity in front of bad guys with badly timed confessions. "It's just…what I do."

Why did he have that creepy tingly feeling that came with being set up?

He got his answer when a glowing green chain wrapped around his wrist and the world went rushing at a weird angle and he found himself up close and personal with the floor, head once again cracking against unforgiving surface. This was getting old.

And maybe the brain damage was kicking in because he had the nerve to be seeing double. And seeing two smirking Sinestro's? Not good. He groaned and shut his eyes. Ow.

Then he started to push himself up only to have more lengths of chain grow from the floor and grab him. Well fuck. Didn't they have an alarm system for this kind of occurrence? Some kind of 'Wally's in shit again' signal? You'd think with all the mocking he put up with there would be.

Oh well. There would be after this.

It was amazing how he couldn't even be serious when chained to the ground. He wiggled around, trying to recall if he could vibrate through energy bounds.

"It's a shame." Sinestro was standing above him, smirking. "You're actually very pretty."

Wally went cold.

Okay, now he could be serious.

* * *

John just wanted to go on record as being thoroughly not amused with this sudden turn of events. What turn of events you ask? Well he'd been sucker blasted by that prick of a former lantern Sinestro and left for 'dead' on an astroid while that whack job took off with his lantern towards Earth.

He knew Sinestro was going to earth because the idiot apparently was a true believe in _World Takeover For Dummies _and worshiped chapter four; _How to Taunt The Hero Before Trusting Him to Die While You Cause Havoc._

Yes, Sinestro had, while cackling, regaled him with a tale of what exactly he planned to do now that he had his lantern and image. (The last part wasn't so bad. Sinestro was far from attractive and looking like John was really a vast improvement? Not that he was conceited. He was just honest.) He was going to go to earth, steal a bunch of stuff, torment some people, and in general ruin John's name before coming back and claiming his ring for his 'collection'.

John had muttered something along the lines of it not being normal for any many to have that much jewelry but he was pretty sure it had gone over Sinestro's head. Wally would have appreciated the joke no doubt.

But, and this was probably the worst part about the whole situation, he didn't care that Sinestro planned to ruin his reputation. More power to him; his reputation was pretty much shot to hell anyway. Or was going to be the moment he got Wally to stand still for s few minutes and hear him out. And more than that his reputation was pretty much 'harsh, fair, man of little words, asshole, scary guy who made the newbie shake in fear'. Kind of like Batman, only Bruce had 'no' instead of 'little' as far as words went and 'psycho' and 'billionaire' were in there somewhere.

Why did he care if they added 'evil maniac' to that list? He wasn't stressed out over having 'Sleeping with the strangely Manic-Depressive Flash' added to it.

Though, seriously, that was beside the point. Did John strike Sinestro as the type of guy to get all hot and frustrated over his _name_ being ruined? What was it with this sudden 'John is a shallow shallow man' streak people seemed to be on? Was he shallow?

Did he care?

…No, not really.

In reality the only thing that John was really pissed off was about was the fact that this afternoon was pretty much guaranteed to be spent chasing down Sinestro and reclaiming his lantern from the alien. That wasn't at all what John had in mind when he woke up this morning.

Well…not woke up, because woke up implies that he'd actually slept. Because he hadn't.

Rather he'd spent the entire night doing something that was far more Batman and Superman than it was Green Lantern. He stayed up all night thinking.

Not to imply that John didn't think often, because he did. He was a very thoughtful sort of guy actually. Or so he liked to think. But still, to forsake sleep in favor of heavy duty brooding and wall staring…it wasn't him. He hadn't even done that after Hawkgirl had left. He'd done some aimless ceiling staring of course, demanding that the ceiling gods explain why it was everyone he bothered to get close to died, left, or betrayed him.

Safe to say the ceiling gods hadn't felt like giving him an answer. And then J'onn had asked if perhaps he needed some time to himself and so he'd given up on that idea least people start thinking he was insane. …Well, people aside from Wally.

His thoughts all seemed to come back to Wally and, shock of shocks, that was exactly who'd he spent the last night thinking about. He hadn't meant to do it and had actually been pretty upset about because he really did prefer to just let things…work themselves out.

If he'd learned nothing since accepting the ring it was that Shit Happened. A lot. And there was very little to almost nothing you could do about it except sit back and wait and hope that maybe someone from the future or an alternate universe would pop up and give you a little bit of advice along the way.

Planning meant you had expectations for the future and when you have hopes and…begin to look forward to things you just crushed into the ground by the stiletto heel of fate and destiny that much harder.

Wait.

Fate. Stiletto heels.

…

Anyway.

The thinking hadn't revealed much to him, beyond that he had been for a time an even bigger moron that Wally tended to be. When he sat back to consider Wally's behavior, from the chronic blushing to the constant bothering and annoying, to the random moments when he just caught the younger man staring…

Wally had the hots for him. (Flattering)

Only not really. Because Wally was Wally and he was John, most of the time anyway, and they risked their lives every fucking day and you didn't really get the _hots _for people in this sort of work. You had to…feel something more than that. (Even more Flattering) You had to feel more than the urge to roll in the proverbial hay at least, to do the staring and blushing thing because there was always that lingering fear of a terrible and horrible death.

And that just on the better days.

When he was feeling optimistic. When he was feeling pessimistic…well. He had very graphic and morbid death fantasies that it was probably best he never shared with anyone.

He sighed and pushed himself to his feet. Thankfully he wasn't really drained, in spite of being smacked off guard by Sinestro, and had managed to keep a protective air bubble up. Now he just had to get back to earth and beat the living hell out of that lantern-stealing twit.

It may even prove amusing.

He didn't really have anything major to worry about. It wasn't like Sinestro could get into the Watchtower. It only opened based on power signals and…fuck. His lantern. Sinestro had his power source and thus his power signal.

Hell, he'd probably have an easier chance of getting in than John would at the moment. They needed a new system.

…Though…Sinestro wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. The odds that he'd take the time to go the tower and defect from his original plan were slim. And, even if they weren't John was going to have to err on the side of proven super-villain idiocy. Getting back to Earth was something else entirely.

* * *

Notes: (See, cause it's all reversed) It's late. I'm sleepy. Going to bed. Don't feel too bad for Wally just yet; I'm just getting started. And yes, the way he got caught sucks but I'm telling you all that blunt force trauma had to catch up eventually.

I switched the order of this after reading it while semi-awake, mainly because of a very helpful review I got saying it would go better this way. Not only that but...well, it makes more sense this way, as far as things...go. Ugh. (You guys can't see it but I'm banging my skull off of a wall repeatedly to jump start braincells.) Things always work better when the author is awake. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

And now the promised short skit, influenced by Saturn's Hikari saying J'onn deserved best supporting actor.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

J'onn: I…don't understand the point of this.

Wally: While rubbing his newly bruised head There isn't one really.

Dick: Yeah…have you met the guy writing this?

J'onn: Well…yes. But still there must be some significance to it. I've watched some of your award shows and there is always a big commotion surrounding them. Why should this be less important?

Wally: Well…yeah…but…its just…John?

John: Don't look at me Kid. I'm still trying to figure out how you won Best Actor.

Wally: What're you talking about! I'm the one being abused and having to go through all of this crap! Of course I won!

John: But it's not fair. I haven't even had a chance to shine yet.

Wally: You're a goddamn nightlight, what do you mean you haven't had a chance to shine!

J'onn: I still don't understand. Waves badly crafted award that looks like a five year old on crack made it in metal shop. What is Best Supporting Actor?

Hart: Something I should have won. You aren't even supportive.

Dick: That's not what that means…

Hart: Oh shut up. You didn't win either.

Dick: …yeah, hey! That's not fair.

John: Welcome to the club

Wally: Oh shut up. Whiners.

J'onn: I'm still do not understand.

0-0-0-0-0-


	10. Ten: Never Heard By anyone squicky

You and I Got Something

Notes: _Happy Dance_ Chapter Ten, chapter ten! Yeah. Only…not so much happiness. Twisted Angst.

Disclaimer: (I know, again) No Wallys were actually hurt in the making of this chapter, though his stunt double is in need of some reconstructive surgery, John did actually lose his mind but it wasn't that much of a stretch for him anyway, and Sinestro is really about to get his ass kicked because…well, John lost his mind. Had there been actual Wallys in this chapter he'd be tettering on the edge of losing it too. But there weren't so he isn't. …._coughs_

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Chapter Ten!

Never Heard By Anyone

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Wallyhad beenunconscious. Now he wasn't anymore. That made sense. You can't very well be unconscious all the time. Unless you were comatose. Which he wasn't.

It had actually hurt quite a bit when he'd been unconscious. Pain had laced his body, like a million tiny white hot pokers pressed against his body at once. It ran up and down his spine but it also centered on his hip.

He was lying down and it felt like a twenty ton weight was crushing him. And he kind of knew a thing or two about being crushed. Gravity tended to be his weakness and those he fought were all but too happy to exploit it.

Constantly.

Oh, and pain! Mind numbing, brain cell melting, _Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, _type pain was resolutely kicking his ass. Badly. As in worse than when he'd been unconscious. His entire body ached in ways he thought could only be achieved by pissing Superman off and that burning in his hip…well; he was kind of wondering if there was actually any skin left there because it might as well have been on fire. Only it couldn't have been because really bad burns tended to burn pain receptors, right?

He blinked, blurry eyed then, feeling something warm trickle down his nose, crossed his eyes to get a better look at it.

Blood. Never a good sign. Bleeding was bad, it was always always bad. He reached up to touch his head. Or tried to anyway. Hisstoppedmoving almost instantlyand pain danced over his nerves. He grunted and rather unceremoniously slammed his head down, expecting to meet metal and perhaps knock the hell out of himself.

Being unconscious hurt a lot less than this. He'd rather be unconscious.

Instead he met warm squishy…ness. A pillow?

He shuddered as a slimy feeling seemed to permeate his skin.

This was him not thinking about that. Maybe later, in the company of a very good psychiatrist or psychic or empath. Maybe J'onn. Only J'onn was being kind of asshole-like lately. Wally was pretty sure he spent too much time with Bruce and John.

Okay then.

He pushed himself up, trying to force the pain to the back of his mind. It didn't work. Why had he thought it was going to work? His head was all fogged up and, though he was thinking okay, the world was blurry and swirling and moving around and he pretty sure he was going to be sick.

Only he wasn't.

But only because the moment he was upright the air started flickering and a hologram of Sinestro popped up. Wally flipped it the bird even though he knew there was no the actual man could see it. Oh well. Didn't matter anyway. He had more important things to focus on (escape) than Sinestro's hologram anyway.

There was a static filled noise and then Sinestro's oh so annoying and smug voice. "Hello there Flash. I didn't catch your real name amongst all the screaming I'm afraid."

Wally scowled. What screaming? He didn't remember any screaming. A lot of cursing and insulting to a point where he'd been implying very foul things about Sinestro's father and goats but that was beside the point. More or less.

"Really quite rude of me. I'm sure you're wondering where you are and I'm in a good mood so I'm going to tell you. I tricked Johnny into coming to save me on an asteroid by claiming to be a downed shuttle. Unfortunately for this…illusion to work I had to actually destroy my ship. It was such a nice ship too. Served me well while escaping the Guardians."

"What a long winded asshole." Wally muttered.

"You're on that ship. I decided the lock you up in the living quarters. If you venture outside you'll die because…well, there's a rather large leak in the ship and this is the only area with useable air left. Sorry about that. It's hard to say if you'll freeze to death or suffocate from lack of air first but either way it should be long and painful." Sinestro paused as if he was thinking about something. "I had intended to show your body to Johnny and make him watch while I tortured you but he got away so I decided to torture you and then use you as leverage should he manage to track me down. Maybe you'll get lucky and he'll come and save you. You have to work with what you have after all."

Wally snorted. Doubtful. John was more likely to let him suffocate-and/or-freeze before letting himself be manipulated into letting Sinestro go. He was okay with that actually. He didn't want to be anyone's leverage anyway.

It was that whole dying that was getting to him. He didn't really want to die. Sure he was kind of resigned to the fact that he was going to die eventually (sooner rather than later no doubt) but he'd rather if it wasn't on the threshold of getting what he wanted.

"But I'm happy to know that even if you get away you'll have something to remember me by. It was fun. If you don't die maybe we can do it again."

The image froze, flickered, and then vanished. Wally wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Sure, he didn't have to listen to Sinestro's rambling anymore but now…he had nothing to do but wait for suffocation. And what was this about torture and remembering him?

Sure, Sinestro was unique in that he was a sicker bastard than your usual villain, but the whole knocking him up and locking up somewhere wasn't terribly original. Maybe they really all did read that book and base their plans on it.

He swung his legs over onto the floor and winced again as pain went tearing through his side. He twisted slightly, biting his lip as he did and frowned. His jeans were still on and he didn't want to go into how utterly relieved he was about that. Sinestro was just…creepy. And that 'Johnny' thing…

How creepy obsessive and mildly gay was that anyway? And not gay in a good way but in a Catholic Priest kind of way. Oh well. That was John's problem at the moment, not his.

His relief was rather short lived however when he prodded the place the pain was radiating from carefully. It hurt still but it seemed to be dulling some. He pushed down his jeans some, hissing as the fabric rasped against sensitive skin harshly. He blinked at what he found, not sure of what to make of it for a painfully long moment.

Evidently his observation skills had suffered from his multiple blows to the head. Not really unexpected, thought he'd always thought memory was the first to go.

The flesh on his hip was white. And not just his usual shade of 'look I'm a redhead and I have freckles' lily white, but an angry impossible shade of white than only came from being burned. He traced the skin with his eyes, trying to process the shape and for a long moment it was just…Skin.

It didn't mean anything.

Then awareness cracked him over the head with a very large hammer. It was an S. It wasn't big; roughly the size of a silver dollar, and it didn't hurt so much as the reddened skin around it hurt.

Wally was going to be sick. It was official. Because he remembered

Sinestro, once again John, standing above him, grinning in a way that just…didn't belong on that face, and he was unable to move because his head was foggy and the energy bindings on his wrist were searing his skin and it was funny because he'd never thought John's energy radiated actual heat. The burning wasn't helping his mind clear up any and he was kind of sinking in and out of consciousness.

"I have to admit I can see why Johnny must like you. You're spunky, just like everyone he spends his time with."

Wally really wanted to tell Sinestro to suck his dick, really really wanted to…only he was more than a little bit afraid Sinestro would take it as an invitation. He'd always thought Batman had a lock on the sick and perverted freaks trying to kill him but it seemed that wasn't the case. Congrats for John for not only finding a pervert, but finding an intergalactic type pervert. That took skill.

It was funny how he could feel his mind starting to whirl out of control as a hundred totally pointless thoughts crashed in on themselves.

Wally never attracted these types on his own. Sure, evil gorillas and guys like 'Top and 'Piper (who was sometimes a pervert, but never like this) but this wasn't his usual thing.

He was still hoping Sinestro would drop the John act. Everything, even his voice, was John. He was trying to focus on the not right eyes but it wasn't going well. It was hard to focus on two such small points that were really only wrong because Wally didn't feel that same surge when he looked into them.

"This day is going so well and I'd hate to cut our time together short, because you've proven to be a lot of fun, but I have things to do." Jo-Sinestro crouched over him and bent down some. "How about a kiss for the road?"

He just glowered and wished that unconsciousness would hurry up. He'd worry about getting away later on.

A hand clamped down on his hip and for a moment he jerked at the cool hand and then there was pain. And he was screaming because fuck._ That was pretty much the only word to describe it. And he saw John's grinning face and knew it wasn't John only it was John and was fading now and he really really… _

Wanted to be dead right now.

That was a new one.

fuck. 

Wally pulled his hand away from the mark as if burned again then, losing the battle to keep everything on the inside inside, retched. His throat burned and his body burned and he was really about ready to pass out again.

* * *

John sat in the back of the cop wagon, considering the past few hours. He'd made it to earth and managed to track Sinestro to Dakota of all places. At first he'd been a little confused: What the hell could Sinestro want in Dakota? 

Then he had an epiphany type of moment. If Sinestro wanted to ruin his rep it wasn't Detroit or Coast City you had to go to, because those people were so damn loyal he could wipe out half of the cities and they'd still stand by him. That was just…the Lantern legacy he supposed.

Besides, it wasn't like he'd care.

But Dakota…well. John kind of had the nerve to be found of the two kids who looked after this place. It was his own fault really. Anyone under that age of twenty was sure to be nothing but a thorn in his side and that's why he'd never done the 'sidekick' or 'mentor' thing. But these two, Static and Gear, weren't exactly Robin or Superboy, they handled their territory all on their own and pretty much…winged it from the start.

You had to respect that.

Or at least you had to respect it until they jumped to conclusions and turned you over to the cops. Then you just wanted to kick the shit out of them. He knew he was being unreasonable and really shouldn't entertain thoughts of beating two teenagers who'd only been doing what they'd thought was right but still…his pride was kind of wounded.

Yes, his ring had been on empty and he'd been bordering on useless anyway, but getting beaten by a techno geek and a spark plug that weren't even out of high school yet was not okay. He was never going to live this down.

Wally would be laughing his ass off for months.

Plus, he was loath to admit, the fact that kid had called him a bogus hero may have hurt a little bit. Maybe he should get Wally to beat him up. They were pretty close in age and probably on about the same basic maturity level…wait, no, he couldn't do that.

It was bad karma in the making.

Did he believe in karma? Something to ponder over later.

Still Sinestro had apperenlty grown a little sense since they'd less met.

He'd have a few hours while waiting for the League to catch the news and come bail his sorry ass out of jail. Assuming the government didn't take this as the opportunity to wage all out war against them. They'd been looking for an excuse for months and Sinestro may have given it him by proving just how 'dangerous' they really were.

And even if they hadn't the anti-'Super-powered freaks' sentiment was going to get a boost. It was getting so a kid was afraid to be struck by lightening, work with a crazed billionaire, or leave Atlantis these days. He smiled ruefully.

Way to focus on the matter at hand.

The doors opened and he blinked at Sinestro who was standing there smirking, hovering a few feet from the truck. John gave him the finger. Now it was Sinestro who blinked.

"What now? I'm not in the mood for you witty banter."

Sinestro looked offended that he couldn't be able to taunt John. Then he shrugged and held out his hand. "I want it."

"A brain? Sorry, I'm fresh out."

The alien twitched. "The ring Johnny, I want the ring."

"Haven't seen it, but I hear they're doing a sequel."

Sinestro glowered. "You know Johnny; you've gotten a lot more talkative since the last time we met and a lot more annoying."

He blamed Wally. …kind of. He was stalling for time and kind of figured the best way was to leave Sinestro bewildered and confused. The best way to do that? Drop his usual deadpan sense of humor and go for the outright nonsensical and annoying. This was to say channel a certain redhead he knew.

"You remind me of someone." He decided he didn't like the way Sinestro was smiling. It was too smug considering his usual reaction would be to throw a hissy fit. "Who is it…wait, I remember. A certain pretty redhead you seem quite fond of."

"Hawkgirl?" He arched an eyebrow. Sure her sense of humor was a bit more pronounced than his own, but not by much.

"No. I believe you call him Flash."

John twitched. "Flash?"

"Yes. He was very…amusing. While it lasted. I'm afraid I had leave him in order to discuss things with you. But he was your usual; stubborn, cocky, and big-mouthed." Sinestro was watching him closely. "I didn't know you liked little boys Johnny."

"Do I look like Batman to you?" He was angry. …no. Angry didn't quite touch it. He'd officially hit a whole new level of rage. Rage did different things to different people. In John's case he went disturbingly numb. He knew he was angry but he didn't feel it. Was worried about Wally, because Sinestro was a bit of a pervert, but he didn't feel it.

There was nothing except a cold sort of…void. Military training at it's best. You didn't get angry or emotional or let the horror of things distract you from the task that was appointed to you. Your emotions would cloud your judgment so you ignored them unless they were useful. Rage and worry weren't useful; they were the biggest distractions besides pity.

There was only duty and purpose.

He had always thought it was like controlled insanity. He lost all of those fun higher emotions that came along with humanity and just…worked.

"Did you hurt him?"

"Of course. What else would I do with him? But not to worry Johnny, I'm sure I haven't done anything you didn't want to do to him. And I even wore your face." His smile was mocking and disgusting and John would have liked to bang it into something hard and metallic until he managed to shatter part of Sinestro's skull.

There were those death fantasies again. Apparently an emotional shut down also suppressed the part of him that considered those bad things. He couldn't be blamed though, the last thing he needed was for Wally to be even more neurotic. There was a brief spike of rage and then he was cool again.

"He screams nicely."

"Where is he?"

"Where is the ring?"

Blackmail. John had never been much for games or things of that nature. He smirked and sat back. "Haven't got it."

"He'll die."

John shrugged as well as he could with his arms chained to the roof of the police wagon. Sinestro didn't know he'd made a slip. Wally was alive. That meant he'd get the great pleasure of ripping various organs out until Sinestro talked.

Oh, another one.

"It happens."

Sinestro cracked first. He failed at his own game. That had to hurt. "Where is it Johnny? You couldn't have put it far, you didn't have the time to …The boy. You gave it to Sparky. Honestly Johnny what is it with you and young boys? Not that I'm complaining."

He was going to start with whatever passed for a spleen in Sinestro's race of people. Those were pretty much useless anyway right? He could live without one.

Sinestro left and he sat there scowling. How in the hell could the cops miss the flying red man with the shit-eating grin floating along side their wagon on the middle of the goddamn highway any fucking way!

No wonder there was a need for a Justice League.

Morons.

* * *

John wondered idly if Sinestro knew he was going to kill him. Probably not. There was that no killing policy Green Lanterns were bound by and everything. But hey, it wasn't like he was going to tell anyone or anything. 

Things were going well. Static had given his a ring a charge (the kid was a walking battery. He should have thought of that in the first place.) before rescuing his partner from Sinestro's bondage happy contraption, which he wasn't going to go into for the sake of the teens' sanity, and saved a bunch of people too dumb to run when they saw a billboard about to fall on their heads.

Ah, the wonders of public education.

He had Sinestro all nice and tied up with some handy wires he'd pulled up from the street and was now staring at the alien.

(Maybe not the spleen. Maybe the fingernails. That would be fun.)

Static had wandered off to do Christ only knew what and Gear was hovering nearby and trying to rub the feelings back into his shoulders by the look of things. He wondered how long Sinestro had him trapped in that thing that was most likely from one of his weird masturbatory fantasy.

Decided he didn't want to know. Also decided he didn't want to think about Sinestro and 'Masturbatory' in the same statement ever again.

(He wondered if it was actually possible to hang a living person by their innards. He really needed to get a hobby. This was starting to get disturbing.)

He reached out and smacked Sinestro who jerked to awareness then glared. He smirked.

"Don't suppose you want to tell me where Flash is."

"And here I thought you didn't care about your little boyfriend Johnny." Sinestro drew out that infuriating nickname in his usual fashion. "What do I get if I tell you?"

He blinked mildly then glanced over his shoulder at Gear who was watching them with thinly veiled interest. Traumatizing children was wrong. Oh well.

"If you tell me I promise to not pull out your insides, hang you with them, and find out if you choke to death or bleed out first. After I pull out your fingernails and find out if there's any truth to that rumor about hundreds of small shallow cuts hurting more than a few really deep ones."

Sinestro's eyes went wide and he smiled in a manner that was most likely unpleasant. He was afriad of him. That was always encouraging.Then the alien swallowed and straightened up as much as he could while wrapped up in a couple tones of underground wire.

"You wouldn't dare. I know the rules."

"Funny how you never thought to follow them." He said mildly. "I'm going to try to make this as monosyllabic as possible for you: You touched what is mine, even if he seems to be having some serious issues with that idea but that's really nothing for you to be concerned about. The sentiment is the same. If he isn't okay I'm going to be very unhappy. Possibly even descend into temporary insanity and no longer be able to control my own actions."

"I…I don't believe you."

"That's fine. Beating up informants is fun."

He was going to be under psyche watch for _Months_ after this one.

* * *

Oh look. John's descended into insanity. I…didn't see that coming until it was written. In fact I didn't see a lot of things in this chapter coming. You think that I would know when my muses are going to take a turn for the macabrely amusing. Like Sinestro being a perv (bondage happy perv even)? No idea how my mind spawned that. Sleep deprivation maybe. There's a lesson in that too. 

Kirke: Exactly M'dear. Sinestro wants to make John suffer for helping to strip him of his Lantern power (as it were) and Wally accidentally let it slip that there was something there… He gets to hurt John without actually touching John and thus last risk of being thrashed soundly.

Hikari: Well don't go dying on me for real. That would suck 'cause you need to write more. (Moi? Demanding? Nooo.) The ceiling gods and John's graphically morbid death fantasies will probably be John's personality quirks, like Wally's Electronic Theories. That aside, another brilliant poem, again I was laughing. Yes, it's a bit of a Static x-over. However we mostly see them from John's POV and…he's not at his most…sane presently. Apparently John gets mad and loses his mind. I think it's all the stress.

Deani: I agree about the opening thing. It actually makes more sense that way. I can only blame posting at theasscrackofdawn for that one. (I wrote Wally's part first, realized it was four pages so I added the John babble...and it just stayed that way.) So. I changed it. I'm the author, I can do that… As for 'The Talk' well…hey, look, birdies! …Not working? Damn. The answer is…no. Sadly. The story kind of ends on a weird note but I have stuff planned and there shall be a talk in an eventual sense. Now. Where's my fanart?

Hols: …stuff. Yes. Just wait 'til John gets Sinestro alone in a locked room. Heh. If only I was a better action writer and could show you all the stuff in my head…

Cherre: John's Wally. We may all want him from time to time, but well…he'd hurt us. Badly. And Wally would probably laugh at us. A lot. I'm always glad to save someone from the Het-ness, it is what I do. …LOL.

Sarky: Hmm…that's probably it. My friend Alex read this and half-way through he stopped and said 'you know I was confused for a minute while reading John's part. Then I realized I've been working under the misconception that he's sane. Go figure.' John has no kind of lucid thought. Neither does Flash, but he thinks so fast that the random stuff is short and to the point. When I write John I tend to ramble semi-intelligently… Anyway!

Ellen: Sadistic Insane Martian…yep. That's about right. And I imagine you're right about why he's nuts, being locked I the 'Tower might make me a little whacky too. Plus it's been what…decades since he's been laid? John had morbid death fantasies. I actually blame Sinestro and his calling John Johnny. It played hell on my mind… And your list is pretty much right. Though I did pause at Dick. Had to ponder it for a mo'.

Mechante: …I'm going to have to tell you know Wally's going to be a bit (very)…traumatized by the end of this so…the emotional hurting just hasn't come yet. I mean, in a totally surface way, Sinestro is John. Creepy much? Still, even my evil screwing with Wally's head stuff will be kinda funny. Why I don't know…but it is.

Nameless: Yeah…being almost done has motivated me to write at ridiculous speeds. …yeah. No more pompoms. Scary. Bound Flash is…squicky. It's not just you. I stopped repeatedly while writing Wally's part because I disturbed myself. But then I wrote John's part and was even more disturbed by that and as such was able to move on. The more I write John the weirder he gets. Oh, and teeniegoth poetry? And you call me horrible…. Ugh. That's just sick.

In closing…remember. You guys can't kill me otherwise you'll never find out what happens.


	11. Eleven: I Won't Tell

You and I Got Something

Random Note: This has been a very very sucky week. Very. But I shall try to keep it separate from the writing. Oh, and I figured out why John is nuts. Someone, namely me, has been reading Johnny the Homicidal Maniac very late at night. If you've read it you understand…

And I'm glad everyone was so disturbed! That means I'm doing my job. So one more after this, give or take a chapter. I'll know by the time I get to the bottom.

XXXXXXXXXXXX  
Chapter eleven  
And I won't tell  
XXXXXXXXXXXX

John got back to the tower to find things were slightly more active than they had been before. J'onn was back, as were Superman and Batman. If John was forced to go out on a limb he'd say Superman was probably cursing his luck and wondering why he was stuck with three of the most pessimistic members of the League all at once.

It wasn't that John didn't like Clark because he did, in that strange multiple personality disorder way they were all so fond of. And it was because he liked Clark, to a certain degree, that he didn't snap when the other man asked why Sinestro's head was bleeding.

Instead he just frowned and, temporarily dumping a half-conscious Sinestro on the ground, turned his attention to the Martian.

"Have you heard anything from Wally?"

J'onn shook his head. "No. He is…hidden from me. We had all returned at the same time and, upon finding you both missing, looked at the last few hours of tape. After seeing the footage Batman and I located I tried to find him, to see if he harmed, but thus far I have found nothing."

In a general sense being blocked from J'onn wasn't always a bad thing. Some of them had half-mastered mental blocking, there was always the possibility of being behind a psychic shield, or a person could just be unconscious. Or a person could be dead. So in a general sense…not bad.

Worst case scenario? Very bad.

"We hoped, after seeing you catch Sinestro, that you had him already." Batman added, glancing up from the monitors to fix a look on Sinestro that could only be described as dark. If he'd been awake he would have undoubtedly been very much afraid.

It was kind of a shame he was too out of it to notice. John nudged him and was rewarded with a quiet groan. Maybe he shouldn't have hit him so hard last time. Not that he could do anything about it now. Besides, if anyone asked he hadn't seen that billboard until it was much too late to possibly do anything about it.

"He hasn't been saying much." He was lying of course. Villains didn't like pain much, people like Harley Quinn aside, and tended to start begging for mercy pretty fast. And, considering that he hadn't really done anything, that kind of took the fun out of it.

He kicked him again.

No. He was wrong. Still fun. J'onn looked at him oddly but Batman remained as impassive as ever. If not a little pissed off.

Superman arched an eyebrow. "I think he has a concussion."

"Hardly." John snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. Then smirked. "More likely he has a fractured skull."

"John-"

"If you would like I could try to…extract the information." J'onn cut in before Superman could try to scold him. He'd probably say something about not tormenting the bad guys. John didn't particularly care. If he could banish people than John could smack people around.

Fair was fair after all. Or was it Fair was Foul…?(1)

It would probably be faster and a lot less messy. And if Wally was facing life or death it was by far the most logical and safe answer. He frowned. He'd kind of wanted to beat it out of him though. Not that Wally was right about the beating up informants thing, because he was very wrong. It was just that every so often there were exceptions to the rule.

Sinestro was an exception.

"You can still interrogate for other information." Batman supplied. John quirked an eyebrow. Was Bruce giving him permission to torture people? How…un-Bruce like. "He did still gold, money, and technology you realize. We need to find Flash now, but there's no reason to ask J'onn to find such trivial things."

Batman rationalized very well. A lot better than he ever did. Wally would have liked to see this. He had once said that the only difference between the moral and the immoral was that the moral rationalized their screwed up actions better. John was pretty sure he'd ripped it from a movie.

He nodded and stepped aside. He wasn't worried about Sinestro getting out, since he was still very heavily bound in wire. Still he was tempted to kick him in the head for good measure but for all he knew J'onn couldn't read his mind if he was totally knocked out.

And that would be bad.

J'onn crouched in front of Sinestro, eyeing the former-lantern carefully. Then he reached out, putting his hands on either side of Sinestro's head, and closed his eyes. John shook his head and walked over to Batman who was running a search over the planet.

"Found interesting footage?"

Batman glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Disturbing. Under normal circumstances I might ask what would possess you to make moves on Wally and not make sure all of the possible exits are locked."

"Temporary insanity." He wondered how long temporary insanity lasted anyway. He couldn't milk that forever. Besides, he was feeling strangely calm. "Is that your way of saying you approve?"

Bruce was a prick but he was fond enough of Wally. John never said it but he was pretty sure the younger man took some of Bruce's comments too seriously. He didn't treat him any differently than he treated anyone, with the exception of Diana.

Batman snorted then glanced over his shoulder to where the others were. "Any thoughts?"

"Beyond the fact I'd hate to be the one poking around in Sinestro's head?" He shook his head. "Not really. Well…someone might want to check on Gear. I'm thinking that kid is going to have some major issues; first Brainiac takes a holiday in his head and now Sinestro..."

"We all have issues." John just blinked at him. Batman smiled grimly. "I'll have Robin pay a visit to Dakota later this week."

John may have been tempted to say something about Batman trying to duck a bunch of high-school kids but forgot what exactly his thought was at the sound of a body colliding with the ground. He glanced over to see Sinestro more or less down for the count officially and J'onn holding his head in pain.

Or disgust.

Martian facial expressions were so hard to read.

With a final grimace he straightened up and walked away from Sinestro stiffly. John was half tempted to ask what he'd seen but at the same time he really didn't want to know. The Martian leaned over Batman's shoulder and changed the search. This time it was centered on the asteroid belt. That made a small amount of sense, since that's where the ruined ship had been and Sinestro really wasn't the most creative guy in the galaxy.

Kidnapping Wally aside. Taking loved ones hostage was in the book but he hadn't really thought to read that chapter. He didn't really like anyone that much. Wally just had a way of getting under people's skin and effectively ruining plans, otherwise he'd still just be the slightly annoying but tolerable guy who kept getting smacked with shrapnel. (And no, he was never letting that go.)

Nope, he had to become that guy who he actually didn't mind hanging out with to one of his closest friends to…whatever he was now. And then there was the plan ruining.

Like John's plan to feel things out between him and Wally before taking any action. Wally just…left himself open for mocking and John was never one to not rise to the occasion.

"We're getting a signal." Batman muttered, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. John leaned forward, expecting to see that they had found Wally. Instead it reported an incoming signal. Someone was seeking them out.

"Tell them we're busy and to leave a message at the beep." John suggested lightly. He heard Superman choke back a laugh in the background. Bruce, of course, ignored him. He hit the intercept command and then a slightly shaky image of Wally popped up.

Of course. He really should have seen that one coming. Wally wasn't exactly your normal person in trouble after all. He was Flash. He could take care of himself. Most of the time. It wasn't like John could tease him about this later or anything. Sinestro had gotten the drop on him and taken his lantern after all.

Best to chalk it up to mutual bad day and never speak of it again.

Wally looked a little worse for wear, pale with yet another cut on his head, but otherwise fine. He waved at them then frowned and smacked whatever he was looking at.

"I knew Electronics 101 would be useful. Sinestro should not leave holographic transmitters lying around."

"You're not dead." Batman said, frowning.

"Disappointed Bats?" A sardonic smile went along with this. "Anyone else hanging around? Maybe burning the midnight oil looking for me or something? This thing isn't a two-way."

"It's only nine in Central City." J'onn pointed out. Wally rolled his eyes.

"J'onn, man, that is not the point."

John arched an eyebrow. "You have a point?"

Wally flinched. It was small but visible nonetheless. John drew away, frowning. There was that rage again. He'd almost forgotten about that whole killing Sinestro thing. Distracted by the prospect of finding Wally. He'd actually let the fact Sinestro had done whatever he did wearing his image slip his mind. Wally probably wouldn't be eager to see or speak to him for a while.

Which was fine. He had other ways to occupy himself.

"I'll be in one of the holding cells."

* * *

"Was that John? You know...John?"

"I probed Sinestro's mind in an attempt to locate you-" If possible Wally became even paler that before. "And I'm sure that Lantern is Lantern and Sinestro is Sinestro."

Wally was silent for a few moments then he forced a smile. "So…I don't suppose there is a chance I could be…not here anymore?"

"I don't know. It's been quiet." Clark said while stepping up to take the place John had occupied. The other man had dragged Sinestro off, eyes taking on a slightly chilling gleam. Clark had looked tempted to follow but a look from John had changed his mind.

He was invulnerable but he wasn't suicidal. John was clearly not in his happy place.

"I'm sure whatever John has planned for Sinestro will be very noisy." J'onn had opted to sit once Wally's transmission had come in. Bruce would have asked how the Martian was, because he looked kind of sick, but he didn't want to know what was in Sinestro's mind. That was entirely too close to the psychotic (and according to John sick and twisted) mind for his liking.

He was already (allegedly) certifiable as it was.

Besides with all of his own personal crazies on the loose he couldn't afford to worry himself over anyone else's.

"Both John and Sinestro are there?" Wally looked torn between the urge to throw up and laugh. It was an interesting look for him.

Clark seemed to be considering that. "Sinestro is…here. How here John is has become a debatable topic."

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "We're debating?"

"Debatable?" This came from Wally.

J'onn sat back and closed his eyes. He looked like he had a headache. Did Martians get headaches? Did they have any aspirin left? "He's lucid."

Bruce refrained from pointing out that the Riddler was pretty lucid as well and instead started the transport process. "Don't move unless you want to risk losing limbs."

"That was comforting."

"I was going for factual."

Wally started to make a gesture but dissolved into a shower of atoms before it happened. A second later he appeared on the pad. He hurried off and up to where they were, not running at his usual speeds. He also seemed to be limping.

"You should probably go to the infirmary." Clark said, eyeing his progress.

"No!" Wally said quickly. Too quickly. Bruce turned and looked him over carefully. He looked worse in person, as in three seconds from collapse. Wally swallowed and looked away. "I just need a very long shower. And ice cream."

"I think we're out."

"Someone hates me." He reached up and pushed his hair out of his face, revealing a sticky looking gash across his temple. He winced when his finger's brushed it. "So."

"John's in one of the holding cells discussing things with Sinestro." He supplied turning back to the screen. He pulled up the security video, searching out the footage that had alerted J'onn and himself of the problem to begin with.

"I wasn't going to ask that." Wally muttered. He shifted his weight again. He was favoring one side over the other and he seemed oddly…coherent and subdued. Tired. "What're you doing?"

"Deleting footage."

"Can you do that?"

"This is my station. I can do whatever I want." This was, of course, true. He could do whatever he wanted. And did usually. He just didn't tell anybody what he was doing most of the time. He didn't want to flaunt his power. That would have been rude. "I didn't think you would mind. Besides, I'm sure John doesn't want anyone knowing Sinestro got the drop on him."

"Manly pride." Wally said with a solemn nod. Then a frown. "Forget I said that."

The computer spit of a disk. He picked it up then offered it to Wally who gazed at it warily before taking it. With that he calmly deleted everything and replaced it with a loop of Wally sleeping and John tossing paper basketballs into a basket. It was from a few months ago but what no one else knew.

"Infirmary?" Clark was about to descend into fully mother hen mode. It was amusing as long as it was aimed at someone other than Bruce who had enough problems with Alfred and Tim as it was.

Wally rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. See? This is me…fine. In fact, I'm so fine that I'm leaving now."

And he did. Clark glared after him then sighed and stalked off. Probably to pout. First John went off to take out his anger on people, and then Wally refused to listen to him…yes. He was probably pouting. Bruce made a mental note to taunt him later on.

He looked over a J'onn. "You feeling okay?"

The Martian shrugged a gesture he'd picked up from being around humans so long no doubt. Bruce didn't recall seeing him do it in the first few months they had worked together. "I haven't seen anything I haven't seen on your news channels before now."

He nodded slowly. "Scary isn't it?"

"Very."

* * *

Wally wandered down to the holding cells, much against his better judgment. Sinestro was down there and John was down there and his entire mind was screaming that was a very bad idea, even worse than racing Superman around the world, but here he was anyway.

He needed to ask John if Sinestro had said anything. His memory was still blessedly spotty and, while he had no plans to ask anyone to play fills in the blanks, he didn't want John knowing anything he didn't. Hell, he didn't want John knowing anything but he could only control what he could control.

He was about to ask the computer which cell Lantern was in when one of the doors slide open and a oddly cheerful looking John strode out, in his usual t-shirt and jeans. Then blinked at him. Before glancing back in the room. And then full attention was returned to him while putting his hands behind his back.

His mind was screaming again. This guy looked too happy to be John; he actually looked a little bit sadistic but was trying to hide it under calmness. John didn't try to hide things. Then again he'd never seen John being sadistic so he didn't actually have anything to compare this new sight to.

Either way his brain wasn't happy with this decision. It commanded him to run and hide in his room and not leave for a few months. His body agreed slightly; his palms were sweating and he wiped them on the front of his new jeans. He'd thrown the others in the garbage which meant they'd be burned soon.

That was a strangely comforting thought.

"You're getting better at rescuing yourself Kid."

"Do you know you have blood on your hands?" He could have smacked himself. He couldn't help but think that any minute John was going to fade into Sinestro and he'd be getting his ass kicked again.

Oddly enough it wasn't the ass kicking prospect that made him want to throw up again. Yeah, he was fine. Cue the eye rolling and less than discreet coughing in the background.

"Did you see me try to put them behind my back to hide them?"

"You should get cleaned up."

John shrugged then tilted his head off to the side. "You look…like shit."

He couldn't hold back a laugh. His mind stopped screaming, either giving up or agreeing that there was nothing to be worried about. Sinestro had been sickly sweet, mixed with flat out crazy, but he'd lacked the condescending tone of voice.

"You aren't exactly at your best either."

"I blame Static. I hate teenagers."

"You hate everyone."

"Discrimination is wrong." John said lightly. He started walking towards him but kept a deliberately slow pace. Giving him a chance to turn and run away screaming like a little girl no doubt. Wally had to say he appreciated the sentiment. Still his fight of flight instinct had kind of given up the ghost so it was kind of worthless. "Haven't you learned anything yet?"

"I learn…stuff." He shoved his hands into his pockets and coughed nervously. John nodded in his usual 'whatever you say' manner. _Just ask him idiot. You don't even want to be around here_. He really wanted to go to bed for the next five or six years, give or take a decade. Most likely give. "Did Sinestro say anything…interesting?"

"Yes." John leaned against the wall. "I now know that you think he's descended from goats. They don't even have goats on Korugar."

Wally frowned. "John-"

"Just because he said it doesn't make it true. If I tell you what he said you have to tell me if he's just saying stuff to make me stop kicking him." A small grin quirked his lips.

"You kicked him."

"It was fun."

"You kicked him."

"Repeatedly."

"You…I thought you said don't beat up people?"

John smirked again. "Batman said I could. Superman was against it but I think he's just a little bit afraid of me at the moment."

"Well you are green. Clark has a fear of green things." John nodded his agreement. He stared at the man who stared back. Finally he sighed. "You really aren't going to say anything."

"Sinestro has said a lot of things in the past hour. Why go over a bunch of stuff that probably isn't true and is better left forgotten?"

'He's giving me an out. Stupid…out giving bastard.' He swallowed again then did his best to shrug uncaringly and smile. "You have a point. So…"

"…yes?"

"You wanna watch a movie?"

John's eyebrow went up. "Do _you_?"

Wally shrugged. "I'm fine."

"Of course." A wry grin that almost had him blushing again. "Didn't ask that. You don't have to be around me. I promise I won't be offended. After all, I know my company is highly sought after in normal situations."

"I know your sanity is being questioned at the moment but don't actively prove them right." He paused for a moment then smiled. "It's more fun to leave them guessing."

John shook his head. "No one is guessing about you."

Wally decided not to dignify that with a response. Besides, it was true. "Movie?"

"If you want. Just let me call the Guardians and at least pretend that this was a perfectly routine thing."

He glanced over John's shoulder warily. "He's not-"

"Able to move? Of course not. I'm very thorough You don't stop until you hear the snap."

Wally just stared. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was very disturbed by that. At least he would have been disturbed if he knew how serious John was. It was hard to be sure sometimes.

"You just keep getting more and more frightening."

"It's an art form."

* * *

1. Macbeth quote. I thought it was a touch fitting, with the whole John impersonation thing.

2. Hate this chapter. It was…weird. _Kicks the chapter _But! I'm pretty sure there is one more and then we're all done. Until I get around to posting the other one. Which, just because I'm weird, already has two parts done. I don't write in order.

Hikari: Actually I think stress and needing to get laid are the same thing…and Wally's not going to be feeling too helpful for a while. We see a lot of GL and Flash in 'Heroes', and we'll see Static and Gear in 'Less than Guilty' which is a weird story that follows this one. And Wally and Richie have an interesting dynamic… What? Because they're my favorites? I'm not biased! Lies… And uh, Wally being traumatized VS Gear being tied up…I can see your priorities are in order.

Mechante: Yep, you are not allowed to comment. You killed people. I just traumatize. Seriously though, for some odd reason this story refuses to be serious. Just…refuses. It demands I be sarcastic and humorous. And, for the record, the morbid death fantasies aren't just mine. I've collected them from friends over the past two/three weeks. I have a whole stack, I just haven't worked them all in yet.

Kirke: Evil evil twisted man, actually… but the sentiment still stands. Heh. No, Sinestro and I aren't related, but I'd love to consult him on character torture. You know…future reference for when I finally get around to screwing with Dove…

Hols: I actually had a new chapter of Rumors ready last weekend. My account was frozen and…yeah. And you were disturbed? I was disturbed. I mean, I knew I was going to screw with Wally but that wrote itself. And then mocked me. It was terrible. And nope, Super Heroes can't be sane all the time… Wally has theories on that actually.

Cherre: Well…Gear's like sixteen so he isn't really a pedophile. John was just being snarky. And no…you can't kill me at all. Otherwise there will be no sequels. And you want the sequel don't you? Yes you do…

Cat: I didn't see it coming until…a month or so ago. I was watching this episode and there was Sinestro and he was all creepy and British (which makes no sense…) and I was like 'Wally Torture!' and…that's the story behind the story. Exciting, right? LOL.

Mars: Language! Tsk tsk…

Nameless: _Gasp_ _of horror_ Tenniegoth poetry and pompoms! That's just…cruel and unusual. 'WTfD' is actually slightly inspired by Austin Powers. My friend Chelle was watching it with me (Seth Green Marathon…) and she actually suggested that Dr. Evil needed one of those 'for dummies books'. To which I said 'World Takeover for Dummies? That would rock.' And there you are. Also exciting, I know… And 'The Alien' thing made me blink too when I went back. J'onn is the Martian, Supes is the Kryptontonian (which I'm sure I misspelled…) you'd think Sinestro would be…Korugarian or whatever. But he's not. Maybe because John doesn't like him? I had…plans when I first began this, but those went out the window during my 'break'. I wrote myself into a weird corner with the old plot and had to devise a new one and this one cropped up. So as of chapter seven, yes, this was the plan. …in a vague sort of way.


	12. Twelve: Isn't Written on the Label

You and I Got Something

Notes: This chapter was surprisingly easy (compared to others) I knew how I wanted it to end before I knew how I wanted it to begin (and yes I mean that seriously) and it just…wrote. So here's what I wanted.  
1) I knew I wanted Wally more scattered than usual and clearly…hurting but not in some dramatic, over the top non-Wally way. Maybe a little crazy.  
2) I wanted John back to his usual sanity level and able to acknowledge that there is something fundamentally unhealthy about the fact he'd so easily snapped. But not particularly caring either.  
3) I want kissing, of the non-flashback or Icky variety.  
4) Mostly I wanted it to be sweetly sarcastic. Fluffy but not…out of my usual style. No dramatic declarations of love or romance novel trash.  
Over all…eh. Ask me again at the bottom.

Side note: All of my titles come from songs and this chapter's from Fuel's Shimmer. These lyrics helped me whip this up. '_All She Keeps Inside/Isn't Written on the Label' _and I chuckled and thought 'It's a shame Wally doesn't come with a label. It'd probably help John out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
Chapter Twelve  
Isn't Written on the Label  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The break room was now the meeting room because…well, they couldn't fit the whole extended League into the actual meeting room, since it wasn't nearly big enough.

And by extended League he meant us about every super-powered, martial arts trained, or gadgetry enhanced person on Earth. It'd been kind of funny, watching all of these egos crammed into one city sized space station and the various 'family' dynamics…

It was fun.

Wally had ended up at a table with Hawkgirl, Arrow, Canary, Tempest, and Lantern, trying to not stare at the Lantern because he knew, at the very least, Garth would notice. It was hard though because…well because it was. Actually everything seemed too hard lately…and not even in a positive way. Wally was starting to think he was losing his mind, or at least losing control, because he couldn't…manage himself anymore. His emotions went haywire and he seemed to drift between two extreme points and never be able to actually…just be.

At first he'd barely noticed. He'd always been like this is one form or another. When he was happy he was happy, full force. He was actually a touch on the manic side and he knew that and it didn't bother him. It was just part of his personality. When he'd been upset he'd been upset, though not as intensely as when he was happy, and it usually was a kind of lingering feeling that could last a while but never really get him down because he just…didn't work that way.

Not so much anymore.

Now he was…almost as depressed as he sometimes used to think he should have been.

…Or something along those lines.

Anyway. Back to the matter at hand.

They were talking about something. They being Superman and Batman. And talking really being arguing like a bunch of bratty school kids. They did that sometimes, descended to a maturity level that made even Wally want to roll his eyes.

He was sitting next to John. Not because he'd chosen that seat but because John had chosen to sit next to him and didn't that make all of the difference in the world? But only because he was really pathetic these days. He was sure that, were he even remotely normal and reacted like a normal person, he'd be terrified of John because Sinestro had been John.

Only he hadn't. Not ever.

And while his brain didn't really understand how it worked out it also understood that there was a difference. The way Sinestro had talked, the things he'd said, the way his hands felt…it had all been way off. Wally could do a better John impersonation. And that was what it was that kept him from being afraid from John or ever having seconds thoughts about not taking John up on his offer.

John had offered him more than one out. He'd allowed the thing with Sinestro to just fade away and…not exist anymore. He wasn't overly attentive like Superman insisted on being or constantly asking about his well being like J'onn had taken to doing. Even Batman was gracing him with subtle questioning looks on some of his more 'off' days and it was damn annoying.

But never John.

John treated him like he'd always treated him. Still called him Kid and smirked in that infuriating sexy way of his when he was amused and watched bad reality TV and if not for the fact he seemed a little…sharper around the edges he was still John.

Never even close to Sinestro's John shaped pervert mockery.

He'd also let things…fall into Wally's hands. Not so much of a mention of The Kiss (now with spiffy capital letters) He wasn't sure if that was good or bad but he got that John was just letting him take time to sort out things.

Funny thing was he didn't have things to sort out. Or…well, he did have _things_ but he didn't have any…things.

…

It wasn't that he was fine. Because he wasn't fine. But he hadn't been fine before and so he was dealing with it okay. Which was kind of sick in a way, dealing with it okay. Wasn't he supposed to need therapy and closure and a thousand other things to help him deal? Wasn't human touch supposed to send him spiraling out of control? Where was the anger or the sorrow or…something? Wasn't he supposed to have nightmares and cower in fear of shadows?

…Well. He'd had nightmares. For like two weeks. It was hard to have serious nightmares when John was all 'Don't stop until you hear the snap' and stuff. He couldn't be terrified of a guy who'd been crying like a baby when the other Lanterns had come to collect him for prison.

And emotion…he was strangely numb to the whole thing. He was almost positive that meant he was headed for a dangerous breakdown any day now, but he wasn't too bothered by it. He was good at picking up pieces of himself and sticking them back together until they resembled something vaguely Wally again.

He couldn't even be traumatized correctly. Couldn't be scared of the man his attacker had made himself out to be, couldn't feel the right things, and he just…dealt with it.

It was almost scary how he just dealt with things. Took them in, was angry for a while, and then that was it. He'd destroyed a few robots in one of Clark and John's training sessions and after that he'd just been…kind of empty.

Which was bad. So help him but Wally didn't want to be empty. He'd rather be afraid or angry or hurt or anything except for…just…empty. Numb. Nothing.

And shit, this was the problem! The thing that lead him to that vague sense of being upset and depressed and…weird all over again. He had all of these thoughts and they made sense in a way but they were even more disconnected then he recalled them being and his emotions were distant and fractured and he couldn't even work up enough to be…himself, really, anymore.

Because he was dealing. He shut himself down and he dealt with it.

And it was easy to deal if he had something to focus on. And that something was John, steady dependable and slightly scary John who didn't change just because sometimes shit was bad and that made Wally want to crawl into his arms and sit still because…

Because…

Christ. He'd give anything for things to just be still.

John was just…doodling horrible stick figure deaths. He leaned over slightly to get a better look. He could almost picture John smirking as he moved his hand to the side to let Wally get a better look. He blinked slowly.

Clearly someone was still harboring residual Sinestro anger. He tapped the one of stick figure Sinestro (He knew because of the hair) being pulled apart by weird puffball looking things.

"What are those?"

"Netionians." John said before adding some more blood splatter. "Funny creatures. They'll eat anything from plants to flesh."

"So I gathered."

John winked at him and he smiled faintly as the familiar feeling of his insides clenching. Yeah. Things with John didn't change exactly. He took a kind of comfort in that.

"No, you don't. I mean anything. They'd be handy murder weapons. They eat flesh, hair, bones, fluids…anything they can get into their mouths will be completely broken down by this kind of acidic mucus and then absorbed directly into the blood stream. And they excrete gas, so no evidence."

"That's disgusting John." Canary muttered from John's other side.

"What's disgusting?" Arrow asked, tearing his eyes away from his inspection of…Canary's…assets. Because Green Arrow was just a bit of a perv.

"John's choice in murder weapons." Shayera smiled faintly. Arrow looked startled and the fact that John was smirking in that very smug and, as of late, more than a little bit scary way of his probably wasn't helping him out any.

Wally just smiled and shook his head. "You're scaring people again."

"I know. It's amusingly therapeutic." He folded the paper up then, leaning back in his seat, threw it into the nearby garbage can. He sat up again and shrugged. "And it's more interesting than this."

Wally couldn't argue with that. He leaned forward and, for a moment, considered listening. Superman and Batman had differing views on what to do about the government plotting against them and everything. And, in spite of not agreeing, neither one had hit upon Wally's situation for the problem.

Just blow the fuck out of everyone involved and be done with it. He knew that, technically, that was a bad 'Justice Lord' type thing to do but in situations like this, where even Batman had been 'hacked' and public-friendly heroes were being created in test tubes, it seemed like the safest alternative to him. But they weren't allowed to do stuff like that.

At least not in public. Superman could send people to alternate dimensions and such as long as it was under the table and that seemed to be what they were arguing about.

It wasn't that he didn't see the seriousness of the situation. He just didn't see the point in debating it at the moment. The government didn't trust them. They had every reason not to and, if Lex Luthor actually became president, that sentiment wasn't going to go away.

Why should they get stressed out about something they didn't have a chance to change? If they ever really fought it they'd be the bad guys, plain and simple.

Which is where his blowing up idea came in. They very subtly went in and took them out one by one and then…oh. Damn. He was starting to think like John. That was a problem.

Stupid crazy marine guy.

Speaking of John he rubbed the bridge of his nose then smiled at him ruefully. "I almost wish I was having another mental lapse. I don't feel bad about deciding to kill people then."

"Most people don't actively wish to lose their minds." Wally pointed out. John shrugged. "Besides, you didn't actually kill anybody."

"Only because I didn't want the bad karma."

Wally nodded as if he had any idea what John was talking about. And hey, maybe he did. "Is this bad karma the reason you need to be insane to kill people?"

"In theory."

Wally noticed that a few people were looking their way now. He didn't blame them of course, Flash and GL had been known to have mildly witty conversations from time to time.

Wally titled his head off to the side in mock thought. "Well if you want I can get Flash-napped again and let them try to probe my mind for information while running terrible experiments on me."

"Why would they do something so useless?" Shayera asked looking up from the conversation she'd been carrying with Arrow and Canary. If she'd been anyone else he might have been offended but her smile was playful. He chose to ignore her.

"What do you think?"

"You're offering to be taken, have painful but useless experiments run on you, all in the name of pissing me off enough to go on some kind of psychotic rampage? And you want to know what I think?" John's eyebrow was up again and he looked like he was wondering which of them was the insane one. The answer was obvious.

…okay, maybe not really.

"Umm…yes."

"Best plan I've heard in days. If you don't mind the disturbing implications of course. And the bad karma."

The meeting seemed to be over because some people were getting up and leaving. Wally found himself wondering if anything had actually be achieved. He doubted it. And since nothing had been achieved they would put this weird 'state of emergency' plan into action. It'd been detailed at the beginning of the meeting and was the only thing he'd actually bothered listening to.

The basic gist was that they all kept a low profile and refrained from doing anything flashy or being in front of any cameras or getting caught in any 'questionable' situations in order to keep the League in the good graces of the public eye. Batman and Superman agreed that the moment they did anything that even looked shady, underhanded, or doubtful they were in trouble.

"What disturbing implications?" He asked as he smiled faintly at Garth who he was pretty sure had been sleeping with his eyes open. He got a slightly sardonic grin in return before the Atlantian walked in Roy and Dick's general direction.

Speaking of Dick the undercurrent of Bat Clan tension had been worth this whole stupid thing. (Why couldn't they just send out memos like normal people?)

He turned back to John, who hadn't answered his question, only to find the other man had risen from his seat and was looking at him in that scary intense way of his. Wally swallowed and blinked.

"John?" The older man raised an eyebrow to show that he was listening. "Uh. Disturbing implications. Remember?"

"That I might care about you enough to actually…go on a psychotic rampage."

Actually, yes, when John put it like that it was very disturbing. And not so much the rampaging part, though that was far from a fuzzy happy image in his mind, but the whole…other…part. It must have shown on his face because John smiled wanly then made a dismissive gesture. It took a few moments before his mind fully registered that John was leaving and he was standing there gaping like an idiot.

Not that was new for him.

That pesky part of his brain that fueled his questionable self-esteem was rolling on the floor laughing at the absurdity of the thought. The more 'logical' part of his brain kicked the pesky part soundly and he frowned at the ramifications that kicking his own mental ass were sure to have later on.

Then the logical part of his brain decided to make a stand. _Stop being an asshole and do something. What do you need, an engraved invitation? Why make it more complex then it has to be? Do you get off on being miserable? You can't even blame confusion anymore. Idiot._

He had a good point.

And…no. He wasn't hearing voices. That was silly.

He actually managed to beat John back to the other man's room and wound up standing and fidgeting outside of his door for a minute and a half. A very long moment minute in a half where he second-guessed himself about three times and each time concluded that he really had nothing to be worried about.

John had all but given him an engraved invitation.

"So I was thinking," John's voice came from behind him and he almost jumped out of his skin. Sneaking up on him was so wrong. "And I came to a very important conclusion."

He turned around and arched an eyebrow. "About?"

"You. I don't like to over think most things but the Guardians called with an opening off-planet."

Wally had to bite down on his lip hard to keep from spilling everything that was swirling around in his head. The pesky voice was sneering at him as if to say 'see where you've gotten yourself?'. And yeah, he saw. Shit. He'd wait too long. John was going to leave. He was an idiot.

And he hurt. Fuck. He took it back. Empty was fine. Great. He didn't mind it.

"Wally…there is something very wrong with you. All joking aside I mean. This means that there must be something even more wrong with me for even thinking about you half as much as I do." Wally just blinked at him. "I have no idea what's wrong with you, or me for that matter, and if I had an ounce of self-preservation I'd stay far away from you. Galaxies away. I'm starting to suspect that you're going to manage to drive me in

He stopped John, pulled him down some and kissed him. He had a millions things he wanted to say in his head and everyone was really stupid and none really made sense at all and that was par for the course with him and God but he wished he had something good and dramatic and earth shattering and worthy and and and…

But he didn't. His brain never supplied those sort of solutions to problems. Maybe some part of him liked watching him fudge his way through everything.

He also wished he wasn't so desperate and stupid and thought so much and a bunch of other things but he was and…ugh. Fuck.

And Christ he hated that stubble. Seriously.

He pulled back a fraction of an inch because he had to breath and John was just blinking at him, a bemused look on his face.

Then hands were on his shoulder, pushing him back slightly. "Wally-"

He started talking. He was pretty sure he'd already proven that he tended to run off at the mouth when he was nervous or stressed out and damn but he was pretty sure this fell under that category.

"I don't want you to go John and I know I'm flaky and hard to put up with and I whine and my apparent ability to see the obvious leaves a lot to be desired and yes I ran away when you kissed me which was stupid and I have no idea what in the hell I'm doing but I really don't want you to go until I can at least kind of figure it out somewhat and I understand if you don't want to be with me or are tired of me doing whatever the hell it is I'm doing and I'm totally cool with just being friends but don't-"

A hand clamped over his mouth. He blinked, wide-eyed. John glared at him mildly and he decided that now would be a fantastic time to just…shut up. He dimly heard voices behind him but didn't bother turning around. John's eyes darted to the side then back to him, apparently dismissing whoever else was in the hallway.

"You know this is what I'm talking about right?" He nodded as much as he could with a hand on his face. "Just checking. Let me finish?"

He nodded again and John let his hand drop to his shoulder again. For a moment neither moved and he could almost see the wheels turning in John's head. Finally the other man shrugged and pushed him backwards. He put out a hand on instinct, expecting to hit the door but instead met open air. A glance over his shoulder revealed John's room, neat and perfectly in order, dark save the light coming for the doorway.

"You know if you let someone finish talking you'd know I wasn't going anywhere." Oh. Well. He had a long history of jumping to the wrong conclusion anyway. This was nothing new. He realized dimly John was still pushing him backwards and that he was still moving. "You're making me crazy and annoyed with everyone who gets within five feet of me and I now have 'may snap at affront to reputation' added to the list of reasons why people avoid me thanks to you. But I'm not going. Any questions?"

"Why're you staying?"

"I like you. You like me. That's as good a reason as any. Anything else?"

"…no?"

"Finally."

This time it was John who kissed him and he kissed back and he knew the room was completely black because the door had slid shut and he probably should have been nervous or panicking and…

He wasn't. He felt fine. He felt…

Everything was quiet and still and he could hear himself breathing and…

He felt good.

The kiss ended for a moment and he licked his lips. Had the strange desire for gummy worms. "Hey John."

"Don't make me hurt you Wally." He could feel the upward curve of John's lips and laughed quietly.

"Right."

* * *

Deani: Ahh…cohesive. Right. Hated it. Still hate it. Bruce is surprising easy, it's J'onn that's hard to write for me. …no, I'm serious. He's a weird Martian… And you pretty much got Wally's mind at the end of the chapter. He wanted it to be normal. (And if pizza was involved all the better) Only normal for Wally is…something else for the rest of us. Go figure.

Cherre: Don't wish for summer, I actually tend to write less during the warm months. Treasure the winter while it lasts. And John can't stay nuts, that's not productive.

Nameless: Hmm…nope, haven't seen Joker since Wild Cards. Wonder what he's up to. He and Harley have always been my favorite villains… Mainly Harley though. I, like you, keep hoping that this time will be the time she just flips out. Your spelling looks better so…we'll go with that. Meh. I wrapped it up in my usual off-beat fashion. Hope your faith in me wasn't misplaced. No teeniegoth poetry…

Kirke: I know, gross right? I blame my father. Anyway. World Domination is overrated. What would I do afterwards, sit by the pool and drink Mai Tai's? Com'on. Getting on the heroes nerves is the fun part, everything else is just useless plot.

Hikari: LOL. Glad I could make you happy. (Not that I'm one to talk…) I'm glad John disturbed you. He was supposed to. He wasn't supposed to be fluffy and…positive. He was creepy and a new level of dark for his usual character; that's what I was aiming for anyway. I like snarky Batman. It just suits him so well. JtHM is fantastic. It's just so…amazingly not right that I can't help but love it.

Mechante: I was tempted to end it on a sour note just to jerk you around. But that would be mean and heartless and I'm not. (usually anyway…) And yeah…I believe in keeping busy as opposed to the going off the deep end and trying to kill myself. That always seemed like overkill. Heh.

Sarky: Yeah, I loved it too. But now it's over. _Tear_

Hmm. So we're at the end. Feels…weird. Not bad weird, just weird. I'll never write 'You and I Got Something' as a header again. Wow. Kind of sad. Well. This story became a lot more than I expected and I'd like to thank you all for hanging out with me along the way. I'll see you when I get around to posting the sequel.


End file.
